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This week, the BBC highlighted sobering trends in Britain’s beer industry. Changing consumption plays a role, but brewers point to a deeper challenge: limited access to market, with British laws allowing tied houses where retailers can only buy from specific suppliers.

“There’s so many pubs we just cannot sell to at all,” one brewery manager told the BBC.

Across the pond, tied houses in the U.S. were outlawed with the enactment of the three-tier system. Independent distribution helps ensure brewers of all sizes can reach retailers — creating a market where success is determined by competition, not access.