SIBA has just launched a strategic plan setting out its aims for the next three years called Delivering the Future of British Beer.

The plan, the organisation’s first, has been developed to ensure continued success for the independent brewing sector, which has thrived in recent years thanks to growing consumer interest in quality British beer, innovation and diversity in the beer industry and support from the government, as was demonstrated by yesterday’s historic third consecutive cut in beer duty.

SIBA managing director Mike Benner presented the plan to an audience of hundreds of brewers and other industry delegates at BeerX, SIBA’s annual celebration of British beer in Sheffield.  It sets out SIBA’s vision, to ‘deliver the future of British beer and become the voice of British brewing’, and shows how the organisation will achieve this through four key strategic aims: to promote and campaign for its members; to provide and enhance commercial opportunities for them; to grow its membership and to develop the organisation’s capability.

Against each strategic aim, the plan outlines some of the ways in which SIBA will look to achieve them. These include political measures such as protecting and extending Small Breweries’ Relief and campaigning for reform of relevant EU directives; commercial initiatives such as developing support for members to export and to start pub estates; developing membership by increasing awareness of, and introducing new, benefits and possibly launching new membership categories and, finally, a range of financial, training and other measures to develop SIBA’s capability.

Benner said, “The independent brewing sector is in excellent shape, with volume growth, investment and job creation, as demonstrated in our Beer Report 2015, published today.  SIBA is uniquely placed to represent this thriving industry, and this feels like the right time to be launching our first ever strategic plan, to help us take our organisation forward over the next three years.

“The vision to deliver the future of British beer and become the voice of British brewing, is supported with goals and actions, across all SIBA’s realms of activity from political campaigning to membership services.”