Independent Beer and Cider Retailer of the Year 2023
Cambridgeshire craft beer shop
crowned as the UK’s best at national awards
crowned as the UK’s best at national awards
The Filling Station Craft Beer Taproom and Bottle Shop in St Ives, Cambridgeshire has been crowned as the UK’s Independent Beer and Cider Retailer of the Year 2023 at the prestigious
Drinks Retailing Awards.
Drinks Retailing Awards.
The Drinks Retailing Awards celebrate brilliant achievements across the national drinks industry that excel in product range, customer service and making drinks special. The judging process is rigorous and made of a panel of judges who are world experts, ensuring that the winners are the very best in the business.
The Filling Station, which has been operating for 20 months, is a new Craft Beer retail concept on the Abbey Retail Park, St Ives and was up against competition in the form of two well established Craft Beer Shops from Manchester and London.
The Filling Station uses state of the art technology to pressure fill one and two litre glass Beer Growlers from a range of 10 ever changing draught Beers on their Tap Wall. This keeps the beer fresh for up to 30 days and can then be taken away and enjoyed at home. Once the beer is finished, their customers come back with their empty bottles and get them refilled. This process uses 60% less water and C02 than buying aluminum cans of beer, so is a more sustainable way of sourcing great UK craft beer. It also provides an outlet to many incredible small breweries around the UK.
The shop itself is a repurposed shipping container that now houses a Taproom, Cold Store and Customer retail space. Outside is a beer garden where monthly events are hosted ranging from beer festivals with live DJs right through to Oktoberfest celebrations.
Ex Carlsberg Executive Matt Kelly, The founder said “From the very start, our mission at the Filling Station has always been to get people drinking better beer. Winning an award of this size on a national level gives us an incredible platform on which to take our message to a wider audience. We have always put the local community and other local breweries at the core of what we do, and to be recognised at the equivalent of the Oscars for the drinks industry, so early on in our journey, is truly an incredible achievement for this hard-working team and our loyal customers”
The Filling Station is based at Abbey Retail Park, St Ives, next to the award-winning Eric’s Fish and Chips, McDonalds and Costa Coffee.