Skye and Arran micro-breweries to merge

Two of Scotland's oldest micro-breweries have agreed to merge in a bid to expand the businesses.

The Isle of Skye Brewery and Isle of Arran Brewery will combine to become the Arran Brewery plc.

It will have a turnover of about £1.2m and produce almost 500,000 litres of beer a year.

The new company's managing director Gerald Michaluk said the brewery hoped to grow sales at home and abroad.

He said: "We are planning, next year, to build a new brew house on Arran which would increase capacity to 16,000,000 litres per annum.

"This production is mainly aimed at the export market.

"We are aiming to grow the business rapidly over the next three years by expanding sales from Scotland to the rest of the UK and internationally."

Recently the Campaign for Real Ale (Camra) said there were now 1,000 breweries in the UK - the highest figure for 70 years.

Camra said 158 new breweries had opened in the past year alone, the highest number ever recorded by the group's annual Good Beer Guide.

Much of the increase in the number of breweries is down to the rising popularity of micro-breweries, which produce small batches of beer.