Why Buy from James Clay

Family Owned / Est. 1978 / Brand owner / Curation / Expertise / Conveyance

We’re now in the 2nd generation of ownership and operation by the Clay family. The business is named after founder Ian Clay’s Grandfather’s mill that operated in the area until the early 20th century. We’re still at this because Ian and Ann passed down that passion to James and Nicky, and all of us too.

After almost half a century in the game, most of our supplier relationships are now very firm friendships. Some of our oldest friends include Lindeboom, Erdinger, Duvel, Chimay, Schneider Weisse, and Hitachino Nest.

In many cases we are in the privileged position to be brand owners in the UK for certain brands. Together with their domestic teams we work to build the brands in our market, drawing on their support and our own resources to contribute towards the UK’s amazing beer scene. We do this to create interest to sustain and revive storied traditional styles, break ground with the latest in modern brewing, and make sure incredible beer is in the reach of everyone in the UK.

Our purchasing and logistics team work tirelessly in pursuit of the best beer in the world. When we find them, we don’t just move boxes about, we take them home, we drink them, and care about them.

Among our sales team we have an immense wealth of expertise, and we love nothing more than sitting down over a beer and passing this on to our customers and their teams too.

Between us all we have decades of experience on the other side of the bar too. We draw on this experience to ensure our standards of conveyance are beyond that which we would have expected as a customer in our time behind the stick.

Discover more in our expertise section