Crisp Malting Group is one step ahead to reopen its historic malthouse in Dereham/UK, just 12 miles (about 19 km) south from its registered office in Great Ryburgh/UK. The company has built up strong roots in the growing craft beer sector and wants to supply selected customers with floor malted malt, a traditional and expensive malting process, which was no longer used in the last decades.
The historic landmark in Dereham, formerly known as the P&G Smith Maltings, which dates back to the 1800s, had been closed in 2000 and has since been left idle.
The plans, which will be discussed on Tuesday in the council’s planning committee, provide the buildings to be restored for more than £1 million ($1.3m) to its original use as maltings and to build 127 homes on land behind the historic buildings. The relevant council case officer has already welcomed the investment. “Any identified harm would not significantly and demonstrably outweigh the benefits of the scheme...there are no material considerations of sufficient weight to justify refusing planning permission,” he stated in a report to councilors.
The idea for the investment already stems from 2015, when Crisp’s long-standing managing director Euan Macpherson went public with the plans. Macpherson retired in June 2016 after being 29 years with the company.He handed business over to Adrian Dyter, a former commercial director for Greencore Malt and chief commercial officer for Boortmalt in Bury St Edmunds/UK, who joined Carlsberg group in 2012 as a global category manager for malt and barley.
Since 2005 is Crisp Malting Group part of Anglia Maltings, which became last year Britain’s largest independent malting company with a total production capacity of 445,000 tons by acquiring GlobalMalt/Tivoli Malz from Germany with one malthouse in Germany and Poland respectively. CEO of Anglia Maltings is David Thompson, who also used to be managing director and chairman at British brewery and pub operator Marston's Brewery. For 5 generations Thompson’s family has been a major shareholder of Wolverhampton & Dudley Breweries, which bought in 1999 Marston’s Brewery and rebranded itself in 2007 toMarston’s.
