News

Horsham’s Old Town Hall

Horsham’s Old Town Hall – WJ King calls upon the Horsham District Council to make the right decision for the town tonight.

WJ King calls on Horsham District Council to make the right decision for the market town of Horsham and the greater community in terms of cultural benefits, suitability and economic benefit tonight when deciding who should be offered the lease of the Old Horsham Town Hall.

With a 200 year tradition of brewing some of the most respected and enjoyed Sussex ales, WJ King has evolved into a new style of micro-brewery, using only the finest natural and local ingredients and traditional brewing techniques to produce the finest quality local ales.

WJ King has proposed to the council that as there has been a working brewery in Horsham for over 200 years and the town is steeped in the history of brewing from the Maltsters to the Brewers, as part of the proposal WJ King are going to create a small heritage centre to celebrate this rich history.

In an independent poll set up by the Horsham town Facebook page local residents have backed the WJ King bid overwhelmingly with over 80% of respondents preferring WJ King over Bills proposal.  http://www.facebook.com/questions/10150761129404139/

In keeping with the renowned history of the building as a courthouse and community centre, WJ King have made a specific proposal to make a private meeting room available at discounted rates to local community groups.

Since taking over the brewery only 2 years ago, Head Brewer Ian Burgess and local entrepreneur, Nigel Lambe have invested almost £100,000 in improving the facility, doubled sales and increased the number of employees from 6 to 13.

WJ King have also supported or sponsored over 50 local community groups from Horsham and the surrounding areas.

The proposal from WJ King is unique in the area and will attract visitors to the town.

WJ King is a small family owed Sussex business.

Bills Restaurants is now owned by a large international private equity group which is based in the secret off shore tax haven of Jersey.

As part of the evaluation process, the criteria used by Horsham District Council gave a 70% weighting to Financial measures and 30% to the Suitability of the proposals and the Potential benefit to the local economy.

The bid from WJ King was judged to be better on the Suitability and Potential Benefits to the town and community. Yet it will be recommended to Horsham District Council tonight that Bills Produce Store should be offered the 20 year lease based mainly on financial consideration. The difference we are talking about in financial terms is £62.50 per week over the 20 year lease.

However, when it comes to financials they have given more credit to a large multi-national restaurant group based in the off-shore tax haven of Jersey over a family run local business based in Horsham in some shape or form for 200 years.

Everything about WJ King is local, from the ingredients to the suppliers of merchandise and all of the staff, even the water sold in the café will be from their partners Life Water from local charity Drop4Drop and the café on the ground floor will be local Sussex based roastery Small Batch Coffee.

Drop4Drop

WJ King has joined forces with local charity Drop4Drop in the pursuit of providing clean drinking water in a village in India.

WJ King has committed to building a well in a village called the ‘Mulla Community’. It has a population of 1,032 people and is based in East Goddavari, Andhra Pradesh, India.

WJ King will provide one litre of clean drinking water to this village for every bottle of WJ King bottle conditioned real ale they sell during all of 2012. Water or brewing liquor is fundamental to the quality of beer and with this in mind it seemed like a good match.

Ian Burgess, Head Brewer at WJ King commented ‘ it seemed like an obvious connection, we will use approximately 5 pints of water for every pint of WJ King real ale we make and yet there are people in the world without a drop to drink.

WJ King is very committed to supporting its wider community, both at home and abroad and the sponsorship of the well for the Mulla Community represents the 50th community sponsorship undertaken since Ian became head brewer in 2010

We are very proud of our efforts to improve the quality of life for those in need and with the massive growth we have enjoyed over the last 20 months since taking over at WJ King, it will not be long before the well is complete and we can look to further projects with Drop4Drop.’

Circus Starr

WJ King is pleased to support Circus Starr. WJ King will be sending some very lovely children from our local community to attend the Circus Starr event in Crawley later this month.

Circus Starr is a Community Interest Company which runs professional circus performances in 75 towns and cities around the UK raising funds for local charities.  In each location, Circus Starr provide 800 free tickets for children who would not normally have the chance to experience a live show – giving them a life enhancing experience and lasting memories.

All the children invited to the Crawley show are children from our own community who face many challenges.  Some have physical disabilities or learning difficulties.  Others have life limiting illnesses or are living in circumstances less fortunate than most children

Please see their website for further details. http://www.circus-starr.co.uk/

World First for WJ King!

Award-winning micro-brewery WJ King has become the first brewery in the world to put their head brewer into every pub.  Exploiting new technology, the Brewery has added a unique QR code to the pump clip and bottle label of each of its 25 beers.  Scanning this code with a smartphone enabled by the freely available QR App, automatically links to a video of Head Brewer, Ian Burgess, talking about that specific beer and the ingredients from which it is made.