David Davies, founder of Blackburn based Sovereign Beverage Company  has been awarded Global Entrepreneur of the Year for the North West at The Allica Bank Great British Entrepreneur Awards.

Recognised annually as one of the most prestigious accolades in the entrepreneurial world, The Allica Bank Great British Entrepreneur Awards received over 5,000 applications this year alone.

Making the shortlist is an achievement in its own right given the calibre of competition, underlining the significance of Sovereign Beverage Company’s win.

Previous winner James Watt, founder of BrewDog, said that winning was “better than winning the World Cup.” Steven Bartlett has gone as far as to dub the awards as “The Grammys of Entrepreneurship,” highlighting the glamour and prestige associated with the event.

The Allica Bank Great British Entrepreneur Awards celebrate and champion entrepreneurs across the UK, building communities to support their endeavours at various stages of their journey.

With stiff competition and a history of recognising businesses that become household names, the awards are a beacon of excellence in the entrepreneurial landscape.

Our Founder David was interviewed by the Daily Express about the success we are creating for our premium suppliers. You can read the full article here

Almawine Company, known as a pioneer in the alcoholic beverages business in Kazakhstan, joined us in Edinburgh last week to meet our premium suppliers Greene King and Belhaven Brewery.

Founder David Davies and Sales Director Craig Johnstone joined Belhaven’s Steven Sturgeon to show the Almawine representatives round Belhaven Brewery, enjoying a tour, tasting, and drinks at their in house pub, Monks Retreat.

This week our sales team have accompanied our Italian partners on a supplier tour, visiting one of our premium suppliers, Thatchers Cider Company Ltd in Somerset.

SBC Founder David Davies and Senior Sales Manager Chris Holland joined Thatchers David King in showing our importer around Myrtle Farm where they enjoyed a tour from 5th generation cider maker, Eleanor Thatcher followed by a make your own cider session with Head Cider Maker Richard Johnson and ending with a tasting with Founder Martin Thatcher.

Our Founder, David Davies was another attendee at the Great British Beer Festival, sampling the award-winning Abbot Ale from one of our our premium suppliers, Greene King. We work with Greene King to handle the global export of their incredible portfolio.

Fantastic to be among such illustrious company and see this brilliant beer get these well deserved accolades.

We’re very excited to announce that Trooper Sun and Steel is now available in Aldi Ireland.  All stores will stock the product, this is the first time that Trooper has graced the Emerald Isle’s shores.  We hope this will be the start of many Trooper products being available in Ireland.

We are pleased to announce that we have confirmed our new agreement with Greene King, giving us exclusivity on the global distribution of Greene King products.

Greene King, who have been brewing for more than 200 years, are part of our premium portfolio of British beverage brands including Thatchers Cider, Robinsons Brewery (Trooper by Iron Maiden), and Carlsberg Marston’s.

We’ve already been working with Greene King for a number of years on a non-exclusive basis, and this latest agreement means we will now be managing the full portfolio worldwide, taking the final three markets in house throughout the course of 2023.

Richard Honey, Sales Director Off-Trade, e-Comm & Export at Greene King said: “We are delighted to have Sovereign as our exclusive distribution partner across all territories. Over the years Sovereign has provided an invaluable service to us helping us navigate the challenges of both Brexit and Covid. Their clear focus on customer service, improving efficiency and reducing complexity, makes them the ideal company for us to work with.”

First launched in 1799, Greene King is now the UK’s leading pub company and brewer with c.2,600 pubs, restaurants and hotels and breweries in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, and the Belhaven Brewery in Scotland. Greene King’s industry-leading portfolio includes Greene King IPA, Old Speckled Hen, Abbot Ale, Ice Breaker, Belhaven Best and its newest premium beer additions, Level Head and Flint Eye, brewed for the modern-day drinker.

Our Founder David Davies said: “We’re delighted to be adding the rest of the Greene King market to our portfolio of premium brands. We’ve already conducted two market visits in the USA, and China and France will follow later this year”.”

To find out more about our portfolio, visit here or to find out more about becoming one of our export partners, visit here. Alternatively, contact info@sovbev.com

Our Founder and MD, David Davies, is doing his bit for charity this year by embarking on a bike ride across South America later this month. The journey is expected to be a gruelling one and will be completed over four days between January 28th and February 4th.

The tour will start on the famous cobblestone streets of San Telmo in Buenos Aires, and then take a detour through Conchillas, Uruguay, where riders will refresh themselves at Bodega Zubizarreta, one of the country’s oldest wineries, before the cyclists head back to the Argentine capital for the final leg of the course.

The trip has been organised by legendary Iron Maiden manager, Rod Smallwood, following the first Truants charity bike ride in 2010, and progressively harder annual efforts, raising a collective £4.8m.

After many years of successful fundraising by The Truants, The Truant Foundation gained charitable status in 2019. This won’t be the first time SBC and Iron Maiden have teamed up. The Blackburn-based company oversaw the introduction of the band’s iconic ale, Trooper, to overseas markets in 2013.

The Truants organise a yearly bike ride to raise funds for three UK-based children’s charities: Nordoff Robbins, Childline and Teenage Cancer Trust. They have set a target of £250,000 for this year’s event, and all participants pay for their own costs related to the ride so that 100% of the money donated goes to the charities.

David is currently cycling 70 miles a day on his Peloton, and battling the British weather to prepare for the journey.

If you’d like to show your support for David, you can donate here.

Following our strongest year to date, we are pleased to announce that we have expanded the team with the recruitment of a Senior Sales Manager and the internal promotion of two employees.

We have invested in the growth of the team following another successful year; we’ve seen revenues grow by 171% since 2019. The volume of our year-on-year hectolitres of alcohol sold has also increased by almost a third, to 50,000 HL. 2022 has been the strongest year to date for us, and we are celebrating with a hat-trick of new appointments.

Chris Holland will be joining us in the new year as Senior Sales Manager, and he brings a wealth of experience and knowledge of the drinks trade to the role. He is a seasoned sales account manager who has worked across a diverse range of positions in the beverages and hospitality sectors. He started his career working in his parents’ bistro and most recently found himself handling a multimillion-pound account at the drinks wholesaler Matthew Clark.

  
We are also thrilled to share that we’ve also rewarded the talent and hard work of the employees who have made the company such a success in recent years, by promoting two of our existing staff members to new roles.

Craig Johnstone has been recognised for his efforts as head of our sales department with a promotion to the position of Sales Director. Craig joined us in 2018 as an export sales manager and will now take on a more strategic role as we look to pursue further growth in overseas markets.

At the same time, Tom Fitzmaurice has been promoted to the newly created position of Operations Manager after eight years with us. He will report directly to the Operations Director, Morgan Holden.

Our Founder, David has said “it’s been another incredible year at Sovereign; we’ve brought on new and re-contracted suppliers, expanded our product range, and entered new overseas markets. To be able to grow the team – especially in an economic downturn – is a huge achievement and moves SBC closer to our overall vision of 100,000 HL by 2025”.

We are thrilled to announce that earlier this month (September 22), we were recognised as one of the best in the county, taking home a ‘Highly Commended’ acknowledgement in the Global Business of the Year category at this year’s prestigious Be Inspired Business (BIBA) awards.

This was our first year entering the BIBAs, and everyone at the company is thrilled with the result. Our founder, David said of the accolade: “Given the calibre of businesses that were in our category, I am absolutely thrilled we have been recognised in this way. This is a fantastic acknowledgement that we are moving in the right direction. We have a wonderful team here at Sovereign and this award is recognition for all their hard work and fantastic efforts over the past twelve months.”

We attended the awards night in all our finery, joining host and Strictly Come Dancing star Brendan Cole at the impressive Blackpool Tower Ballroom on Friday 16th September. Following the awards ceremony, boyband Blue provided the after-party entertainment – something the SBC team thoroughly enjoyed!

Run by the North & Western Lancashire Chamber of Commerce, the BIBAs are the county’s longest-running and largest business awards ceremony and are billed as ‘the one they all want to win’.

Babs Murphy, chief executive of the North & Western Lancashire Chamber of Commerce, who organise the BIBAs, said: “The event was a perfect celebration after a tough two plus years for the county’s business community.

“Lancashire businesses have used innovation, enthusiasm and sheer hard work to overcome so many challenges over recent years and The BIBAs was the perfect way to
recognise them. Regardless of the sector they are in or the size of the business they have all had to dig deep and rely on the character their people to get through this tough
period. The successes we celebrated at The BIBAs were a recognition of a real collective success by so many people”.

We’re already looking forward to next year’s ceremony and results!

Two Hobgoblin brews have claimed Gold at this year’s World Beer Awards, with Hobgoblin Gold being named the UK’s Best Golden Beer while Hobgoblin IPA was once more crowned the UK’s Best English Style IPA.

The World Beer Awards are an annual competition judged by brewing industry veterans, running globally to celebrate the very best that beer has to offer in all internationally recognised styles. Hobgoblin IPA’s success continues its winning streak, having achieved the title every year from 2020 as well as earning the distinction of winning World’s Best IPA in 2018.

Both Hobgoblin Gold and Hobgoblin IPA, as Country Winners, will now go to the global round of the World Beer Awards to compete to be the World’s Best in their categories later this year.

Joanne Wyke, Brand Manager for Hobgoblin, said: “We’re delighted to have Hobgoblin Gold and Hobgoblin IPA named the UK’s Best Beers in their style by the World Beer Awards.

To receive such prestigious awards for our beers, judged by some of the most respected industry figures, is testament to the skill and efforts of our fantastic brewing team. Our continued success wouldn’t be possible without the many dedicated people working with Hobgoblin on packaging, quality control, process and beyond who make sure our beers are enjoyed at their finest by everyone.

“Hobgoblin’s recognition by the World Beer Awards, coupled with our beer’s phenomenal growth over the past few years, shows we’ve more than achieved our ambition to show that beauty lies within.

“We’re all very excited to see what the future holds next for Hobgoblin, and hope the win inspires new drinkers to discover their next favourite beer.”

The achievements at the World Beer Awards 2022 reinforces Hobgoblin’s position as one of the leading premium ale brands in the UK. The news follows the launch of Hobgoblin’s newest beer, Hobgoblin Session IPA, currently available exclusively at Lord’s Cricket Ground and Edgbaston Stadium before making its way to pubs across the country.

Hobgoblin, the premium ale brand from Wychwood Brewery, is part of Carlsberg Marston’s Brewing Company’s portfolio of British ales and is available in export via Sovereign Beverage Company.

Belhaven Brewery has scooped three prizes at the prestigious 2022 Monde Selection Awards. Belhaven Scottish Ale and Belhaven Scottish Oat Stout both won Golds, while Belhaven Wee Heavy clinched a Silver medal.

These three classic Scottish beers received the awards in the Beers, Waters and Soft Drinks category and follow a successful 2021 for the Brewery, who opened a brand new Visitor Experience, and won a Country Winner award for Scottish Oat Stout at the World Beer Awards in 2021 and 2022.

The Monde Selection awards are judged on five elements – taste, global judgment, visual effect, odour and packaging with all three beers impressing the Jury of the 61st World Selection Awards.

We are delighted that our beers continue to be recognised by experts as top in class for consistently great quality product and marketing. Our brewers are passionate that every beer that leaves our brewery is of the finest quality.

All three of these beers form part of our Belhaven Discovery Range which offer the drinker quality products, but also the chance to explore different beers from the norm. It is great to see them clinch such prestigious awards and I hope many people will continue to enjoy them for years to come.

Scottish Ale, Scottish Oat Stout and Wee Heavy have very varied tastes and flavour profiles and offer up new occasions to experience them, such as food pairings, as well as allowing the drinker to explore and experience everything Belhaven has to offer.