by Real Business - Wednesday, 17th October 2007 -

Ringwood Brewery case study: how a Carbon Trust loan taken out by a Hampshire brewery is cutting thousands of pounds off their energy bills...

January 2007

Based in Hampshire, Ringwood Brewery is a small brewery, which employs 50 staff and has an annual turnover of £8m. The company was founded in 1978 and produces a range of beers including Best Bitter, Old Thumper, Bold Forester and Boondoggle.

Due to the energy intensive nature of the brewing process, Ringwood Brewery was incurring energy bills of approximately £60,000 per year. Much of this cost resulted from running a nine year old oil chilled water refrigeration unit, used for cooling the cellar and vessels where the beer is stored.

Keen to find a way to reduce costs and improve energy efficiency, Ringwood Brewery applied for an interest-free loan from the Carbon Trust in order to replace the old refrigeration unit with a more energy efficient alternative. The new chiller would have the capacity to recover heat, which could then be redistributed to preheat boiler feed water, thus further improving efficiency. The Carbon Trust also recommended insulating the buffer tank and pipe work.

The cost of the project was approximately £14,200, the vast majority of this was covered by the £14,000 loan. Ringwood Brewery expects to cut its energy expenditure by nearly £3,000 per year and also reduce its annual carbon emissions by six tonnes. Based simply on the money saved on energy costs, the initial loan from the Carbon Trust will have a payback period of around five years, after which all further savings will go directly to the bottom line and may then be used to improve services still further.

Bob Mavin, Chief Engineer at Ringwood Brewery said: "Agreeing the loan with the Carbon Trust went very smoothly - the whole process was extremely simple and straight forward. The equipment we use is now much more energy efficient and the cost saving benefits will become increasingly apparent as the investment payback period progresses. We are continuing to work closely with the Carbon Trust on the installation of a new boilerhouse, which should enable us to reduce energy bills still further. I would happily recommend the Carbon Trust to other businesses.”

The Carbon Trust helps businesses save money and cut carbon emissions through energy efficiency. The interest free energy-efficiency loans are available to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in England Scotland and all businesses in Wales and Northern Ireland that are investing in energy efficient equipment.

Drawing from a £26 million fund, loans of between £5,000 and £100,000 are available to successful applicants in England, Scotland and Wales. Loans of up t0 £400,000 are available in Northern Ireland.

Upgrading to energy efficient equipment, even with a modest investment, can save a company over 20% on energy bills. In many cases, the amount of money saved each month will exceed the loan repayments thereby increasing company profits by hundreds, or thousands, of pounds each year throughout the payback period. Thereafter, the full value of the saving contributes to the bottom line.

To find out more about energy-efficiency loans, call the Advice Line on 0800 085 2005 or visit the Carbon Trust website: www.carbontrust.co.uk/loans