Moving On: We Are Hillians

Roger Warner, Founder and Head of Brand & Growth.

1st November 2025... 

We started moving our brewery into our new Burgess Hill home this week. The team is doing an incredible job of dismantling and re-assembling everything. It's a totally new chapter. We hope the first brew in BH will be late November / early December. 

Next Spring we'll be five years old - celebrating our first trade sale, post-Covid. Now's a great time for the move. We've also just launched our AF beers in Co-op supermarkets nationwide. Good times.

This post isn't about too much, other than a marker and a pledge to share more stories as we move ahead.

It's been an interesting ride so far. When the company started, I wanted to work differently than before. Less haste, more mess, more serendipity... in part because I had to, as I was new to brewing.

I still feel like the apprentice on a regular basis, but most of the mistakes and happenstances of the past have seemed to work out. A lot of the business even looks coherent in hindsight. Who'd have thought?

As with all startups, some things have been painful - bloody hideous in places - but we've learned a lot about what we hold dear and left some things behind. It's brilliant to see the tanks disappearing down that wooded lane at our old HQ and appearing all shiny on the other side.

For the first time I feel we have the right platform for good and meaningful growth - something we'll continue to measure in wellbeing (are we getting the right R&R / are we building the right teams?), as well as in £££ (are we profitable and selling in the areas we want to?), and social good (are we having the right impact?). 

Soon we'll be HILLIANS - loud and proud.

As well as a new brewery site and taproom, we'll have: new senior folks starting in commercial and finance roles, which will allow us to focus more on brand and marketing (for the first time); a really solid, new-look brew team; a proper five year plan; and, most importantly, a bit of time in-between our old and new brew rota to take stock and gain clarity for the new year.

We move from chaos to order. 

All of this new feels really, really great. I'm so excited to see Only With Love spread its wings and fly.  Let's go.