Harrogate Brewing

Founded in 2013 as a small-batch microbrewery, Harrogate Brewing Company was acquired by Joe and Julie Joyce in 2020 with ambitions to build a larger, more resilient business that could create a long-term future for their family. 

Just weeks later, the Covid-19 pandemic brought the hospitality industry to a standstill. With its pub customers disappearing almost overnight, the family adapted by launching online sales, home deliveries and a taproom. 

As the hospitality sector recovered, the brewery expanded rapidly. Alongside supplying pubs, restaurants and venues including Castle Howard, Harewood House and the Great Yorkshire Show, it launched craft beer brand Happy Town, expanded into bottled and canned products, and developed gluten-free and low-alcohol beers. 

But growth exposed the limitations of the brewery's traditional ways of working. 

"We weren't really seeking grants," said Joe. "We were seeking knowledge. We needed structure. We needed better production software, better commercial management and better processes." 

With production increasing and its product range expanding, the brewery recognised that its reliance on manual processes was no longer sustainable. Facing tight margins and rising energy and ingredient costs, it needed better information, greater control and stronger foundations for growth. 

Harrogate Brewing Company's digital transformation began with support from the York & North Yorkshire Growth Hub, which undertook a comprehensive review of its operations, identifying opportunities to improve production, strengthen commercial management and introduce digital technologies that would support its long-term growth ambitions. 

The business was introduced to Made Smarter, where the development of a Digital Roadmap provided a clear strategy for modernising the brewery. It identified how better-connected systems, improved production monitoring and greater visibility of business data could help the company move beyond traditional ways of working and build the foundations for sustainable growth. 

Although Joe had spent decades leading large manufacturing businesses, he found the process invaluable. 

With a clear plan in place, Harrogate Brewing Company secured a £7,500 Made Smarter Digital Technology Grant towards a £17,000 digital project combining the Breww brewery management system with Plaato's real-time production monitoring technology, alongside staff training to ensure the whole team could embrace the new systems. 

The investment introduced an integrated digital platform covering production planning, stock management, quality assurance, batch traceability and commercial management. Connected monitoring equipment allowed the team to remotely monitor fermentation, reducing manual sampling, minimising product losses and providing live production data. 

Joe also integrated the production systems with financial software, creating a joined-up view of brewing operations and business performance. Alongside separate work to monitor energy consumption across the brewery, the investment created the foundations for a fully connected operation capable of supporting future automation and continuous improvement. 

"The software gave us a structure," he said. "It was a constraint at first because it made us work in a much more disciplined way, but that's exactly what we needed. Once we had structure, we had information, and once we had information, we could make better decisions." 

The impact was immediate. During the first year following implementation, turnover increased by more than 50%, while production yields improved by 5%, brew times reduced by 12% and daily energy consumption fell by 3%. 

More importantly, the business fundamentally changed the way it operated. 

Real-time monitoring, automated data collection and integrated production management reduced waste, improved stock control, strengthened traceability and gave the team much greater visibility of brewing operations. Better information enabled more accurate production planning, tighter cost control and more informed commercial decision-making, while reducing the time spent on manual administration and process monitoring. 

"We needed to get off the quicksand and onto something solid," said Joe. "That's what Made Smarter gave us. It gave us the structure and information we needed to grow." 

The project also helped the brewery respond to one of the biggest challenges facing independent brewers, accessing the market. With stronger systems and greater confidence in its operations, the business has continued to grow, opening its own pub in Harrogate and a second venue in Knaresborough. Those outlets not only generate additional revenue but also provide valuable routes to market for the brewery's products, increasing brand visibility while supporting higher production volumes. 

The business has continued to build on that momentum, more than doubling in size since the Made Smarter project began and earning industry recognition including Federation of Small Businesses Yorkshire & Humber Family Business of the Year and Harrogate Advertiser Independent Business of the Year. 

Having established the digital foundations for the business, Harrogate Brewing Company continues to explore new opportunities to improve efficiency and support future growth. 

The brewery is working with the University of York on further energy efficiency projects to better understand and reduce the significant energy demands of the brewing process. As production continues to increase, the business is also planning its next phase of investment, recognising that future growth will require larger facilities, additional brewing capacity and further automation. 

For Joe, the Made Smarter project was never simply about introducing new software. 

"It allowed us to do everything that came afterwards," he said. "It gave us the confidence to keep growing. We know where we are now, we understand our business much better and we've built something that's sustainable for the next generation of the family."