James Vukmirovic talks to Stuart Russell about Ales R Russ, a company which provides wholesale beer to micropubs and other places selling beer from its base in Cannock.
00:00Hello, I'm James McGrinovich. I've stood around hundreds of beer barrels. It's an idea of paradise for myself.
00:07I'm within Ales R Us here in Cannock. It's a supplier for micro-pubs and bars across the area.
00:15One of the main people behind it is Stuart Russell. He and his colleagues run this place and I believe you supply pubs and bars all over the area.
00:24Yeah, we make a real effort to supply micro-pubs within the area that are family-based, community-based, not big corporations.
00:34We try and work with families and all of our customers are, none of them are customer numbers.
00:40They're all people we know by name and have grown relationships with. One of our big things is we try and build relationships, try and help people.
00:47A lot of people coming to the trades have never been in a trade before. And me, I've been in trades for 15 years. My dad's been in trades for 40 years.
00:56So it's good to give the past a lot of knowledge and help people because the trades are suffering at the moment.
01:01And we're doing all we can to try and help the people that want to keep the trade going.
01:06I suppose in a way you're almost like a gateway to the brewing industry.
01:10Yeah, and we try and help them again. We try and deal with micro-breweries and small family breweries again.
01:15Try and help them build up from small to sort of...
01:19Again, one of the breweries have done brilliant work with the Bristol Beer Factory.
01:23They started off really small and now we're one of these breweries in Bristol.
01:27So, tell me about the genesis of this place. How did it start out?
01:31It was a bit of a strange decision. Both me and my dad got made redundant at the same time.
01:37And my dad decided he'd be able to work for anyone who wanted to do his own thing.
01:43So, it just kind of took me to convince him that let's give you a go.
01:47And we're starting in October 2010. I've been a tiny, tiny depot. I've been a bit fit on this side.
01:55And our first week we did 40 barrels and now we're doing approximately over 300 or 400.
02:01And with a different range of breweries around the country.
02:04Just looking around, I've been able to see St. Austell brewery and things like that.
02:08Yeah, we get stuff from as far as Portman in Scotland.
02:12All the way down to the South Coast and everywhere in between.
02:15We do try and do a lot for local breweries as well.
02:18We do Sarah Hughes, we own the whole side of the country that supplies Sarah Hughes.
02:22Basically, we have a big hotel. But we also get stuff from everywhere in the UK.
02:30And we also get continental lagers from the Czech Republic, Germany, Belgium, Spain.
02:37Again, trying to help us. We have a weird and wonderful range.
02:42As you said, it's the whole idea of keeping the tradition of cask beer alive with these different breweries around.
02:47Yeah, well, cask beer, we combine them with that passion.
02:50Especially when that's my dad, that's his book.
02:53And he's still, for me, keeping a beard.
02:56He's felt, which is a real labour of love.
02:59Takes a lot of effort.
03:01There's a lot more variables involved that can go wrong.
03:05But when he's right, for me, it's incomparable.
03:09And looking ahead, what's the...
03:12What do you want to possibly achieve with this space to keep the industry alive?
03:17Yeah, try and help the pubs in the area.
03:19We cover about 60-mile radius and we've expanded slowly, surely.
03:24But the main thing is, let's try it at the moment.
03:27Using entire strates, it's almost.
03:30There's not a lot of help for it.
03:31And micro-bubs and the smaller pubs are the future of the amount of them.
03:36Because the bigger pubs just aren't getting the help they need, despite the variety costs.
03:40So we're just trying to lower the cap to help it.
03:43And what's the most popular beer that gets bought from them?
03:46There's a few.
03:48White Valley, we have a lot of White Valley breweries.
03:51We do a lot of Bristol beer, perhaps a lot of Serien Hughes.
03:55We have a rotating range.
03:57We have about 10 to 12 breweries, which we all stop recording.
04:00And we have anything between 20 to 30 breweries, which we have a variety, Cascale-wise, between 90 and 30.
04:09And what's your favourite?
04:11Between, obviously, White Rats and Bristol beer factory.
04:17And finally, if people want to find out more about Ails R Us, which obviously is a clever play on words with your surname.
04:24How do people find out about it?
04:26Well, we've got a website, ailsruff.com, Instagram, also ailsruff, and Facebook.
04:32But also, just, we like to talk to people.
04:35So, no problem coming.
04:37You can quite often find me in a book somewhere in the Netherlands, rightly or wrongly.
04:41Come and have a chat with us.
04:42We're going to the Great British Beer Festival in August as well.
04:45We'll all be there in supporting the cause and the trade.