What a crazy 4 weeks it’s been! Here at Kraft Werks we’ve had to rapidly adapt to the seemingly daily changing situation, to continue to sell all you folk great beer.
On Friday 20th March, when the news broke, we knew it was coming, but when it finally happened it still felt a shock. Kraft Werks, like thousands of bars and pubs up and down the country, was instructed close up and the last beer was poured. Over the weekend we were still able to sell take out beers from the Kraft Werks beer shop. But then on the Monday the Government advised all non-essential shops were to close immediately, so we shut the doors.
That same Monday, we had an emergency meeting and got our heads together to think how we could continue to get beer out to our customers, so decided on a rapid plan to build our ecommerce shop to kick-start a local beer delivery service. Then, on the Wednesday the Government changed tact and deemed off Licenses/Kraft Werks beer shop was essential business and we could re-open the beer shop, phew!
To just throw open the doors again to customers just didn’t sit right with us, what with browsing, touching products, chiller doors and till points, even with one in one out. So as we had worked through 2 nights to create the web-shop we thought the stay safest option would be to run as an eCommerce pre-order click and collect and we’ll pack your beer bag and leave it for you to collect.
However, we still knew many of our customers were self-isolating, rightly restricting trips out from the house, or simply too far away to use our collection service and we really wanted to get our delivery service running. After what seemed an age negotiating and pleading with Nottingham alcohol licensing department, a week later we were given the go-ahead to run our same-day delivery service and it’s been great to get out and drop those much-needed bags and boxes of beer to you!
I must also thank the team and thank you for every single order, with no help as yet from the Government for our small business despite all the promises and fanfare, we’re just happy we can continue to get great beer out to you all!
Now let’s talk about beer:
Cask your mind back…
Cask Ale was nice wasn’t it, can you remember that stuff?
Here we’ve been missing draught beer like crazy, and the weather has been making it even worse. Those first few warm nights of spring after the clocks go forward signal the changing of the seasons, that we’ve left winter and we can now look forward to the summer sprawling out ahead of us. Usually, this realisation hits us in a beer garden, slinging back a well-conditioned cask ale. The Easter Bank Holiday just gone would be the perfect opportunity to sling back a few pints, but alas, for the greater good we are all staying indoors. So we’re here to put in your hand some of the best local craft beer and cask bag-in-box that we can get our freshly washed hands on.
We’ve been close with our friends at Black Iris for many years and we like supporting good, kind minded businesses. Totally Brewed have been selling beer direct from the brewery since the lockdown started, and we wanted to support with their deliveries and getting their cask products out there as well. Recently we have been stocking up on Neon Raptor (who have since shut down their brewery), Liquid light, Black Iris and Totally Brewed cans which can be purchased on our online store, for click and collect or local delivery.
So by supporting Kraft Werks in this difficult time, you are also supporting your favourite local breweries. All Bag-in-Box offerings will be online weekly for deliveries over the weekend. Perfect for backyard suppin’, they last around 7 days, so even the 10L ones don’t seem too daunting.
New Loyalty system coming soon!
With moving over to our new eCommerce site, we’ve not forgotten about your Kraft Werks customer loyalty, after all, it is you guys who are keeping us going at this challenging time. So we are on the brink of rolling out our new, updated loyalty scheme, which allows you to top up your EXISTING points earned before all sales switched online, and we’re pleased to say with our new improved loyalty you’ll be able to do so in £1 increments.
An email will be sent to you soon so just follow the instructions to quickly setup your online new Kraft Werks loyalty account. There you’ll see your balance, all your previous orders on the new website.
We just kindly ask to save points through the lockdown and we are hopefully back up and running when this is all over. We’re sure you appreciate these aren’t the easiest times, so thank you for holding off cashing loyalty for now.
Thank's for reading! Let's raise a glass to good health, and in thanks to all the key workers pulling together during this crisis.
Os, Josh & James