Burglar breaks into Sheffield brewery St Mars of the Desert triggering financial crisis

St Mars of the Desert brewery, on Stevenson Road in Attercliffe, was raided late on Christmas Day when a burglar broke windows, destroyed a security system and vandalised the premises, before stealing a computer, according to co-founder Dann Paquette.

He said the total cost was £2,000 - wiping out all of their Christmas profit and forcing them to lay off staff - and came on top of a whopping £26,000 hike in their electricity bill last year.

He added: “We worked really hard in 2022 to try to get the most out of what is truly terrible time for the industry. It took away a lot of our enthusiasm. We are brewing again and will open the tap room on March 11. But we are not going to add staff for a few years.”

Mr Paquette runs the business with Martha Simpson-Holley. Following the burglary, Manchester-based Track Brew Co sent them a box of ‘thoughtfully put together’ beers to cheer them up.

He joke tweeted it was ‘the only thing I can think of that would make getting broken into more often a GOOD thing! Thank you so much you rockstars’.

Mr Paquette said the economic challenges had seen more than 50 breweries close last year and he wouldn’t be surprise if that quadrupled in 2023.

He added: “There will be a lot of breweries going out of business this year. It’s going to be ten times worse than Covid.”