'Hopefully we’ll open a few more bars soon' - Salford success story Seven Bro7hers on 10 years in business

If you’re a fan of beers, particularly of the craft variety, then Seven Bro7hers might be a familiar name to you. The brewery has products in many bars across Manchester, with their own bars also becoming a presence on the streets of the city. 

The brewery is owned by seven brothers all from Salford - hence the name. In July, they will mark 10 years since the sale of their first beer and talking to one of the brothers, Keith McAvoy, ManchesterWorld found out they are far from done. 

Keith explained how the idea for a craft brewery came from living in Norway, and a meeting with his six brothers helped get the family business going.

“I was out working in Oslo with an offshore pipeline company and whilst living out there for just over a year I became completely blown away by the craft beer scene there,” he says. “It was so cool, I’d never seen anything like that in Manchester. It was really contemporary, bars were having their brew kit installed in the bar, it was right there front of house instead of being in the cellar of the pub which is quite traditional. 

“The drinks would literally go from tank to tap. The initial idea was to open up our own brew pub like that one, but the more we looked into it, the more we decided that we would start our own brewery first.”

The love of brewing goes back a long way, to when the brothers were young and living at home. 

“Our love of making beer goes back further to when we were kids,” Keith said. “Our dad was a really keen home brewer, and we all got involved helping him as we grew up. We enjoyed that aspect with him, and it was great. We didn’t always get it right, there was the odd explosion when he was attempting things, but some of us got into it more than others. When we got older, most of us got more interested in drinking it rather than making it. We ‘ve set about organically growing our business since we poured that first pint in 2014.”

The brewery has become established in Manchester, and having the Seven Bro7hers name as part of the craft beer scene is something the brothers don’t take for granted. 

“It’s incredible really,” Keith said. “Sometimes you can lose sight of it because you can get so engrossed in the day-to-day but sometimes you can pause and take a breath of this. Our products are becoming a regular feature in quite a lot of bars across Manchester. We’re all extremely proud of this. We have a strong, faithful following and we know that anything we do put out on the market will be embraced.”

Having your business be a family affair can be interesting at times, and Keith said that Seven Bro7hers was no exception. 

He admits: “We had our disagreements early on, I won’t lie, but what's great is when we get together it's a very powerful thing. When we’re all pulling and pushing in the same direction, it’s unstoppable. We’ve learned to take things that haven’t gone our way on the chin. We’ve got to a point where we know what we want to achieve. 

“Everything that drives the decisions we make is around the community. We try to embody that in the bars that we own and operate. Pubs are an essential part of the British mentality and we are a craft brewer, but I wouldn’t say we are a craft beer for the beer geeks as such. We’re a craft beer brewery for the masses. Our beers are open and accessible, they’re not confusing with names that don’t relate to the product we’ve produced.”

In April, Seven Bro7hers announced a collaboration with local institution the Salford Lads Club. It is a club that has strong connections to the McAvoy family. 

Keith said: “Our links with Salford Lads Club go back a long way. Our dad was a member back in the 1950s together with his two brothers. His name is up on the wall of names at the club which is great. We visited the guys who run it and they dug out our dad’s original cards they signed when they joined, so that was pretty cool. 

“We’re Salfordians, and we’re really proud of that. Anything associated with Salford whether that be the Lads Club, the football, the rugby, we’re there as much as we can be. The beer took off and did really well, and it was our pleasure to produce a product for them and we’ve got plans to do more with them. We’re talking about maybe hosting a music festival with them at one of the local parks in Salford.” 

The brewing industry, like many others, has endured turbulent years of late. Keith outlined some of the issues it has faced, but also that big contracts with Manchester establishments have helped them. 

“The brewing industry has gone through some tricky times in the last few years,” he said. “I would say from Brexit through the pandemic and then the current economic climate being affected mainly through the war in Ukraine, it’s been a challenging time. These have affected so many aspects of running a business, not just a brewery. 

“We’ve been lucky enough to get some contracts that have got us through it. We’re the sole craft beer provider for Co-op Live, that's a five year deal, and we’ve got a 12-year contract with the bar we run at Manchester Airport. We’re lucky enough to have these in place that have allowed us to ride some of the really tough situations. You’ve just got to roll your sleeves up sometimes and get through things.” 

There are some big plans on the horizon for Seven Bro7hers, and this includes working with another McAvoy family business - Four Sis4ers Distillery. 

”Our sisters have a distillery and they make their own spirits, we’re joining forces with those guys,” Keith said. “We’ve done that now and we’re going to carry on making spirits under our own name in collaboration with our sisters’ business. We’re running out of space here at Salford Quays so we’re on the lookout for a new forever home, we’ve got plans to build a brand new brewery by 2026/ 27. 

“We want to keep going. We want to keep on growing the business, get the new brewery built, make spirits and keep on making as many beers as possible. Hopefully we’ll open a few more bars soon too, we just need to consolidate ourselves at the moment and take it easy for a few months to then head into 2025 with more opportunities that I’m sure will come our way.”