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The Milton Brewery in East England, just outside Cambridge.
Like many businesses in the UK and across Europe, this company is struggling with rising prices.
Richard Naisby, Milton Brewery
“We're dealing with the biggest price increase ever.
Our brewery has been around for 23 years and things are going through the roof.
Malt prices have increased by 40 to 50%.
Electricity contracts without a fixed price are twice as expensive.
Growth rates are depressed through April and even if we somehow manage to turn a profit, we're facing a 30 percent increase in corporate tax."
According to the UK Bureau of Statistics, the inflation rate in the country was 10.5% in December.
The so-called “fresh food inflation”, i.e. the increase in the price of groceries, was as much as 15% in December.
Low-fat milk, for example, has become around 46% more expensive, butter almost 30%.
The reasons: higher costs for animal feed and fertilizers, but also persistently high energy prices.
According to the Bank of England, Brexit is also responsible for part of the increased costs.
However, the reasons cannot be clearly separated.
For many Brits, the increased prices are a major challenge.
'It's absolutely disturbing. I have adjusted my everyday life. I only go on foot."
»Food prices in the supermarket have increased and this has influenced our purchasing decisions. We tend to buy cheaper things more often now than we would otherwise. Simply because everyday groceries like bread and eggs have all become more expensive.”
Back in Waterbeach, Naisby doesn't usually store large amounts of his ingredients.
But now the brewer is hoarding sacks of malt.
His hope: a little more planning security.
Richard Naisby, Milton Brewery
»We can't pass on every price increase and not immediately anyway.
We are faced with very unstable price increases.
For example, the price of carbon has increased by 600%, and predicting those increases is almost as difficult as managing them.”
The Milton Brewery is too small to drive wholesale purchase prices down.
On the other hand, the company is more adaptable – that's what Richard Naisby builds on.
Richard Naisby, Milton Brewery
»We're small enough to take a beating and adapt better than a big company.«
Naisby is confident that his brewery will be able to clear the next important hurdle at the end of March, when the British government's electricity and gas price cap will expire.
If prices rise as a result, many companies are at risk of surviving.
Richard Naisby, Milton Brewery
“That's significant.
The situation is probably not life-threatening for us, but many breweries are currently having to close.
This industry has suffered great losses.«