Despite its position as one of the UK’s most
influential consumer organisations, the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) is
confronting one of the most challenging periods in its 55‑year history.
The group has reported significant financial losses, shrinking membership, and
a rapidly changing beer market that threatens the future of traditional cask
ale - the very product CAMRA was founded to protect.
The
Campaign’s latest accounts show the
organisation ended
2025 with a substantial operating deficit, driven by
rising costs and declining revenue from festivals, publications, and membership
fees. The financial strain has forced
CAMRA to cancel a number of
major
events, including the
Great British Beer Festival and its
Winter
counterpart, after both failed to attract sufficient visitors to break even.
Membership numbers have also fallen sharply and now
stand at 143,038 - an eight‑year low. For a variety of
reasons, numbers are unlikely to return to pre‑pandemic levels, something the Campaign
is slowly coming to terms with. The cost‑of‑living crisis has made the £35
annual fee harder to justify for many drinkers, while the steady decline of
cask ale in pubs has reduced the traditional benefits (beer vouchers,
discounts) that CAMRA offers its members. On top of this, pubs are
closing at a rate of two to three per day, reducing further the number
of venues that serve cask,
In a somewhat muted response, the
Campaign
has begun a programme of
restructuring and cost‑cutting, which includes
reductions in staff and a shift toward digital publishing, although these
measures were to some extent, already in place before things started to go
pear-shaped. The organisation admits it must adapt quickly to safeguard its
future, but the challenges ahead are deep and structural.
Whether CAMRA can reinvent itself, and
whether cask ale can regain momentum among younger drinkers, remains
uncertain. What is clear is that the organisation is entering a pivotal moment,
one that may define its role in Britain’s beer culture for decades to
come. The Campaign ended the 2025 financial year almost
£800,000 in the red before tax, an unusually severe loss for a membership‑based
consumer organisation, and one which will be difficult to recover from – if it
does at all!
10 comments:
Oh dear. I suspect they are a bit of a leftie organisation and have a lack of financial rigour. As they say Go woke, Go broke. That is a big loss and membership fall off to sustain. I suspect an haircut is needed.
Another one for my collection maybe.
I wouldn't describe CAMRA as leftie, Grim Reaper, but they certainly caught a cold over last year's Great British Beer Festival.
As you point out that's a huge loss, and it's difficult to see any way back from that. I see that the Campaign operates as a Private Limited Company, so I don't know where any financial liability starts, and finishes. Presumably their Head Quarters building (no longer in St Albans, I understand), is a fixed asset.
I was a member for just under 50 years, but towards the end of my time with the organisation, they'd become increasingly irrelevant, not just for me, but with a growing number of others, who weren't fully-paid-up, life members.
I shall still be sorry to see them go under, as for several decades, the Campaign played a significant role in my life.
I think the accounts published for 2025 included the purchase of the new headquarters and warehouse building in Luton, but at that time they had not sold the old HQ in St Albans. This was something that was missed by the various newspaper articles from some of which you or your chatbot have quoted (or semi-quoted).
CAMRA is in no danger of "going under". The current focus is on the distortion of the beer market by the large brewers and pub companies. The gleeful article in the Sunday Times is no doubt a response to CAMRA's demand for a Competition and Markets Authority enquiry into this, and shows that CAMRA is still a force to be reckoned with.
Thanks for the update, Will. Yes, I did use AI as the primary source for my article, but at least the facts were more or less in line with reality, unlike some pieces that have appeared in the press, recently.
It's good to learn that things aren't quite as bleak as they first appeared, and I also saw confirmation regarding the sale of the old St Albans, head office building. Whatever sum CAMRA obtained for the transaction, will obviously make the balance sheet look a little bit healthier!
CAMRA is actually a private company limited by guarantee, which I think basically means that the members/shareholders liability is limited to the amount of their subscription. The Companies House website has more detail but note that there are two entities listed - CAMRA Limited and Campaign for Real Ale Limited.
The sale of the old office shouldn't affect the balance sheet since it just means that a property asset is exchange for cash, which may have already been 'used' for the new office, perhaps by taking out a loan repayable on sale. This does assume that the sale price was the same as the accounts valuation - if not, then the difference should be recognised as either a profit or a loss in the accounts.
Paul, "one of the UK’s most influential consumer organisations" was long ago when it could proclaim "our beer is lovely and all other beer is horrid" and nobody really disagreed.
Will, any "demand for a Competition and Markets Authority enquiry" should be mindful of what happened last time, an unmitigated disaster of the 1989 Beer Orders which saw the Big Six national brewers replaced by four far worse multinational brewers.
Paul, the 1989 Beer Orders were a classic case of "be careful what you wish for." As you point out, the pub companies, and multi-national conglomerates that followed the break up of the Big Six, were far worse than what existed previously!
As Will says there's no danger of CAMRA going under, and for most members it's a hobby with a small annual cost they'll be happy to pay. Membership may continue to slip, as festivals are quite the recruiting too they once were, but I suspect they'll still be enough members for CAMRA to be relevant, and the young Chairman puts the case for the campaign very well.
That said, if CAMRA dissolved completely tomorrow, so what ? Well, we'd lose the excellent resource that is the on-line guide to pubs, the heritage work, and the Beer Guide, for a start.
But plenty of young folk, including my own two lads, will drink cask (and keg) without any desire to join a club, attend meetings and arrange beer festivals.
I decided to look at the CAMRA accounts. Boy they make a lot from beer festivals and sale of the other tat. Who would have thought it.
I'm no accountant but I can read a set of accounts. Why have they spent £1.8 million on Fixtures and Fittings when there are no freehold or long leasehold additions. Is the Luton property a rental?
GR, You surely don't expect the Employees' Bar - a sort of all day staff canteen - to be fitted out any less opulently than nearby Luton pubs. And it must still be a force to be reckoned with if a well respected Keighley brewer opts for Chairman Ash as their new Landlord on thousands of pumpclips.
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