A Frome cider producer was featured on BBC Panorama recently, exploring the impact of rising fuel and energy prices linked to the Iran war.
Lilley’s Cider, a family-run business based at West Woodlands, appeared in an episode broadcast on 27th April which examined pressure on businesses linked to global energy market disruption. Owner Marc Lilley said diesel costs had risen significantly to around £3,000 a month.
He said, “The costs have been driven up. We have still been able to get everything we need but everything is getting much more expensive. We cover the whole of England and Wales. We have five satellite depots around the country with drivers and vans plus lots of vans based in Frome.
“On top of the price of diesel, we have got a steam boiler, which runs off heating oil. Heating oil prices that we are paying have more than doubled and that is also another £3,000.
“Everything we produce is pasteurised and to pasteurise it we need the steam boiler, which runs the oil, so that’s another big cost and we’re doing like 3,000,000 litres a year, which needs to be heated to a specific temperature, which needs a lot of energy.”
The programme explored the conflict’s effects on global oil markets, with around 20% of the world’s oil supply moving through the Strait of Hormuz, a key shipping route.
Marc said supplier costs were continuing to rise as a result. He said, “We have not passed on any of the extra costs at the moment that we have been paying and to be honest, I don’t want to put my prices up. I’m just hoping the war stops and oil prices go back down and we won’t have to do it. I mean, it’s looking less and less likely that is going to happen any time soon.”
One of the biggest challenges Lilley’s Cider faced before this was the Covid pandemic, which Marc says nearly took the company under.
He said, “Over 90% of our business was pubs and then all the pubs shut. Obviously, when the Ukraine war broke out, there was a middle spike that didn’t seem to last very long.
“We just need a period of stability where things aren’t up and down like a yo-yo, it makes it really hard to do business when that happens.”
Pictured: Marc Lilley
