My name is Edward Quigley, I am the new owner of 8 Sail Brewery based in Heckington, North Kesteven. We are a microbrewery that sells beers to pubs and venues across the county, as well as to customers here in our tap room at Heckington Windmill.

I was aware of the UKSPF funding through another project that I did at a gallery in Sleaford, so I reached out to officers at NKDC to look at whether or not we would be eligible to apply for funding to replace a critical part of our production, an industrial chiller.

Thankfully, we were eligible and we were successful in our application and it means that we now have a piece of equipment that will save us money but also we'll have resilience in the business and we know that we'll be able to continue making lovely beer.

It's really critical to have the support that we've received from NKDC. We're a small business and we operate in hospitality, so it's very challenging. We're losing breweries and pubs left, right and centre - so it's essential that businesses like ours have access to the support that we've received.

The first year of my ownership of the brewery is about business continuation, but what we are looking to do in the immediate future is build upon the programme of events that we have here. So we will have a summer of music, a summer of good food - we already have great beer - and we hope that people will come and enjoy some special days here, in the shadow of Heckington Windmill.

Edward Quigley, 8 Sail Brewery
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