Contractor appointed for Blandford St Mary brewery project (From Bournemouth Echo)

Contractor appointed for Blandford St Mary brewery project

8:00am Wednesday 28th July 2010 in

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PLANS for a new £5m brewery in Blandford have taken a step forward with the appointment of a contractor.

Brewery bosses at Hall and Woodhouse have appointed a Midlands firm, Musk Engineering, to build a 110,000 hectolitre brewhouse at their drinks plant in Blandford St Mary.

Musk’s management team all learned their trade at historic Burton firm Robert Morton and Briggs, which built the existing Hall and Woodhouse brewery in 1897.

Hall and Woodhouse chairman Mark Woodhouse said he was proud of the appointment, which is at the centre of a multi-million pound project intended to secure the Dorset firm’s long-term future.

“As a brewery we are very proud of our heritage and are therefore delighted that we have been able to appoint a British company to help us secure our long-term future in brewing.

“It’s not every day that we decide to commission a new brewery – in fact our last brewery was commissioned over 100 years ago, and the decisions we are making today are on behalf of future Woodhouse generations.”

Ambitious plans for the Bournemouth Road site, including 200 new homes and offices, as well as the new brewery, had stalled several times since their proposal in 2006.

David French, the firm’s commercial director, said Hall and Woodhouse had secured planning permission to build the brewery and outline permission to develop housing on the site.

Nearly 200 people work at the plant at Blandford St Mary. Hall and Woodhouse owns 81 pubs in Dorset, 62 of which are run by tenants.

Head brewer Toby Heasman said Musk Engineering had been the only British firm to make the final shortlist of three tenders.

“Musk is able to move existing fermentation vessels as well as the installation of pipe work and utilities, so it will act as the principle contractor for the whole plant,” said Mr Heasman.