A REJUVENATED brewery has set its sights on building up a healthy pubs estate.

The renamed Camerons Brewery, based at the Lion Brewery in Hartlepool, was established following the £35m acquisition from Wolverhampton and Dudley by Castle Eden in April.

The Castle Eden site was been sold to housebuilder Charles Church, and its jobs have been transferred to the Lion Brewery, where more than 130 now work.

The brands of the two former competitors have been combined, and the Lion Brewery will continue to brew such names as Camerons Strongarm and creamy bitters, plus Scorpion lager, Castle Eden Ale, Trophy Special, Best Scotch and Nimmo's XXXX.

Mike Berriman, who recently joined the company as marketing director, from Gateshead rival Federation Brewery, said the new company had set its sights on a pub estate of 200 sites within the next three years. At the moment it has about 25 pubs.

He said: "We are on the look-out for decent venues, with a mix of city centre and out-of-town sites.

"We want to establish an estate of community pubs that sell good beer with an offering of food, but we are not looking for fun pubs.

"We will cherry-pick single outlets across the North-East before we look outside the region.

"We believe it is important to prove that we can be successful in this region before taking on the competition nationwide. We want to build as big as possible before we do that."

Mr Berriman said: "We've already got a handful of premises, offering traditional fare, but we hope to have at least 200 pubs in our estate within three years."

Plans for the expansion of the pub estate are backed by Yorkshire Bank, which put up the money to help Castle Eden acquire the Lion Brewery.

Under the merger the new brewing company will be a strong regional player, one of only two left in the region following the demise of Vaux.

Mr Berriman said: "My former employers, Federation, are still going strong and Castle Eden and Camerons aims to emulate their success. There are only really two independent regional brewers in the North-East now, as Newcastle Breweries is part of Scottish and Newcastle, which is based in Scotland.

"Vaux has also gone, and the site is now undergoing transformation to make way for a supermarket development."

Mr Berriman began his career in the brewing industry with Vaux, so its loss is particularly poignant for him. He said: "Vaux was a big name in the past, but it went because of the continued consolidation in the industry. I think we have probably seen the end of that, in this region at least, but who's to say there won't be more big names leaving the industry in the future.

"One thing is certain about Camerons and Castle Eden. It will retain its head office and brewing operations in the region.

"We might look to expand in the future, but for now we're content to build our base in the North-East, and remain close to our roots."

That message is echoed by David Soley, chairman and chief executive of the new company.

He said: "One year ago, the beers produced by the two companies and the jobs at both sites were in great danger of disappearing.

"The products play a very important part in the life of the region, reflecting local pride and taste, and we are all delighted that by buying Camerons Brewery we have been able to save both sets of brands.

"We now want to get on with the job of offering all these beers to a wider audience and providing the North-East with a strong regional brewery.

"Camerons is currently capable of producing about 200,000 barrels of beer each year, but we have the capability to more than double that number to 450,000 a year.