Bathams Brewery have been brewing their signature real ales since 1877. Now into the sixth generation of brewing expertise, the Bathams family run the brewery along with 12 pubs across the West Midlands. Over the years, the business has continued to grow resulting in the need for more stock and streamlined operations to keep up with demand.
For most of their long history, Bathams had to move the huge casks manually, rolling them across the floor and lowering 54 gallons of beer one cask at a time with ropes and chains.
This method took a lot of time and posed serious health and safety risks for staff.
Recognising the need for an improved system, Bathams approached Penny Hydraulics searching for a way of moving casks in their brewery and some of their pub locations. They wanted a solution that was unique to their operations, but was also easy to use, ultimately protecting staff and reducing delivery time.
Due to the nature of their operations, each pub required a tailored solution and the brewery required a completely unique solution to easily move the stock to the top floor.
The main priority for Bathams was to ensure staff moving the stock were protected from hazards without disrupting the brewing process or damaging the casks.
As the lifts are used by lots of users across multiple sites, they need to be easy to use. Staff must be quickly trained to ensure deliveries can be as efficient as possible.
Over 25 years of partnership, Penny Hydraulics have installed a Goods Lift in the brewery and Vertical CellarLift in their pubs including a lift made to size for their newest pub, opening later this year.
Installing the Goods Lift in the brewery has allowed Bathams to easily move the raw materials to the top floor of the brewery where the brewing process begins.
At the pubs, the Cellar Lifts do all the heavy lifting during deliveries, completely removing the need for heavy lifting. This means staff face fewer health and safety hazards and deliveries are much faster, benefitting both the Bathams staff and those delivering the stock.
Penny Hydraulics provided a multi-system solution tailored to the needs of each site and full product training to improve the business, allowing Bathams to focus on making the perfect brew.
MARTIN BIRCH, HEAD BREWER
