According to the Society of Independent Brewers and Associates (SIBA), the brewery closure rate across the UK slowed during the first half of 2026.
SIBA’s latest UK Brewery Tracker shows the number of net closures currently stands at an average of less than one per week during the first six months of this year, compared with three per week over the same period in 2025.
The total net brewery closure figure from January to June 2026 was -16, calculated by subtracting closures from new brewery openings, compared with a final figure of -137 for the whole of 2025.
The UK recorded a record number of net brewery closures in 2025 as rising inflationary costs and lingering Covid debt put more businesses under pressure.
Regionally, the Brewery Tracker showed a mixed picture in the first half of 2026, with the North West, South East and Wales each recording a net increase of three breweries, while the South West recorded an increase of one.
Conversely, Scotland has suffered heavily this year, with the administrations of BrewDog and Innis & Gunn contributing to a decline in brewery numbers north of the border.
Speaking to Food Manufacture, Brian Moore, a partner at Edinburgh law firm Dentons, said: “We’re probably starting to see a structural barbell in the beer sector. You’ve got the big global brewers on one side, and at the other end, you’ve got the smaller, more local brewers.
“That mid-size, the barbell in the middle, probably where people in BrewDog and perhaps Innis & Gunn were operating, that’s the bit that’s getting squeezed.”
Citing the rising costs faced by brewers across the board, he continued: “BrewDog ran into trouble for lots of different reasons, but I don’t doubt that the really significant ones were rising input costs like energy, packaging, ingredients, weaker consumer spending, and then the fact that it was operating with quite a big bar portfolio around the world and it opened hotels, it expanded its drinks portfolio into distilling whiskey and other spirits as well.”
Overall, Scotland recorded a net decline of -9, while the North East (-8), Midlands (-4), Northern Ireland (-4) and East of England (-1) also saw brewery numbers fall.
SIBA chief executive Andy Slee said: “The figures released today are a sign that brewery closure numbers may be beginning to stabilise following a number of particularly tough years, but for most breweries the struggles are not behind them.
“Brewing businesses which have managed to weather the storm are seeing strong demand for independent beer, but profitability is still a concern with lack of access to pubs, high taxation and high production costs hitting brewers.”
