Lion has announced additional measures to assist its on-premise customers following Prime Minister Scott Morrison shutting down registered and licensed clubs, licensed premises in hotels and pubs, entertainment venues, casinos and nightclubs.
Lion’s National Sales Director Mark Powell said: "We acknowledge this is an extremely distressing time for everyone involved in the hospitality industry. At Lion, we are doing everything we can to work quickly and provide our valued on-premise customers with the support they need right now.
“Following the Government’s announcement that pubs and clubs will close from midday today, we are now in the process of working through options to assist our customers who are affected by this new closure order.
“Lion will take back unused kegs and offer customers a credit. For safety reasons these kegs must be full and capped.
“To process a full keg pick-up and credit request, customers can email Lion Connect on lionconnect.enquiries@lionco.com with the keg quantity, best before date, keg number/s and venue account number.
The brewer has received more than 10,000 requests for returns, amounting to more than 60,000 kegs.
“It may take some time for us to come to your venue to collect these kegs, so we ask for your patience as we contact all impacted customers over the coming days and weeks to make the necessary arrangements,” Powell said.
Lion MD James Brindley told the Australian Financial Review yesterday that the company's breweries were fully capable of remaining operational for the off-premise during the COVID-19 crisis: “Our breweries are 100% able to operate under strict health and safety rules.”
The company announced last week that it had put in extra safeguards such as additional personal hygiene measures, changing work patterns and other social distancing measures for roles in its business including brewing, manufacturing, packaging, engineering and logistics.
In addition, the brewer has increased the scope and regularity of cleaning at its manufacturing sites and put a stop to all overseas and non-critical domestic travel.
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