Four Giants, One Tap: CAMRA Calls for Probe into UK Beer Market

Four Giants, One Tap: CAMRA Calls for Probe into UK Beer Market

CAMRA has published its first ever report on the state of the UK beer market, and the numbers inside tell a story that’s been brewing (pardon the pun) for years. Published on July 6, “Beer in the UK” makes the case for a Competition and Markets Authority investigation into how four global brewing conglomerates — AB InBev, Heineken, Carlsberg, and Molson Coors — control what ends up on tap in British pubs.

The numbers don’t lie

Here’s the data that caught my attention, drawn from the CAMRA report and backed by SIBA (Society of Independent Brewers and Associates):

• There are around 1,600 independent breweries in the UK. Between them, they hold just 7% of the total market.
• Demand for independent beer is 280% higher than their actual share of the pub market. People want it. They can’t get it.
• Seven of the top ten selling “craft beers” in the UK are made by those same four global companies.
• Many beers marketed as “continental” or “import” lagers are actually brewed in the UK — just with foreign labels, often diluted specifically for the British market.

As report editor Tim Webb put it: “The way that better, independent brewers are excluded from the on-trade beer market is scandalous. The dominance of multinational brewers in the UK beer market was a national embarrassment.”

Breweries dying by the dozen

The market squeeze isn’t just theoretical. The SIBA UK Brewery Tracker revealed that 137 breweries closed in 2025, a 37% spike in the closure rate compared to previous years. That works out to a net loss of nearly three breweries a week. The UK now has 100 fewer breweries than it did a year ago.

SIBA chief executive Andy Slee has warned that 2026 will bring a “survival crisis” for British beer. The average closure rate sits at around 5.5% across the UK, though the picture is worse in some regions.

It’s not just about taste

CAMRA chair Ash Corbett-Collins summed up the consumer angle neatly: “Ordinary drinkers are being short-changed when it comes to choice and quality at the bar. Our report proves how the global players are exploiting the status quo to squeeze out independent brewers, to the detriment of ordinary publicans and beer drinkers.”

The report also highlights how pub company contracts and “line maintenance” deals — effectively payments from brewers to pubs to stock their beer — create barriers that independent producers can’t compete with. A small brewery in Devon might make an exceptional IPA, but if the pub company’s contract with Heineken says otherwise, that beer isn’t going on the tap.

What happens next?

CAMRA is asking the CMA to launch a full market investigation — the same kind of probe that led to reforms in the beer sector in the 1980s and 2000s. Whether the current government takes it seriously is another question. The report specifically calls on the government to “step up, start taking the issue seriously, and take action that matches up with their statements about supporting pubs and the communities they serve.”

The Morning Advertiser’s own Beer Report 2026 adds further context: world lager accounts for 30.3% of volume sales and 34.9% of value sales in GB pubs. In a market where consumers visit pubs less often but spend more per visit, that kind of homogeneity feels increasingly out of step with what drinkers actually want.

The data is clear. People want independent beer. The system keeps them from getting it. Whether competition authorities decide that’s worth investigating remains to be seen.

Sources: CAMRA, The Drinks Business, Morning Advertiser, SIBA