Entrepreneurs: Meet the sporting duo behind Wolfpack Lager

Rugby and beer go together like fish and chips but why craft lager? Hargreaves says Wolfpack “is about the fun behind beer”. “In craft beer, it can be very insular and pretentious and all about me.”

Despite the hype, we’re also a nation of lager drinkers. The South African adds: “Over here 80% of people still walk into a bar in the UK and drink lager. The growth in craft beer [comes from] commercial lager drinkers starting to explore. There’s a big jump from drinking Fosters to drinking Beavertown or Gamma Ray, we think we’re a nice stepping stone. If we can make a beer that’s a cut above standard lager, tastier, with better ingredients, branded really well, but not alienate people by being too crafty, we think there’s a nice niche there.”

They’ve contracted out the making of Wolfpack, and they encourage the bars they sell it to keep the price under a fiver if they can, “so you can have two or three rather than one 7.8% half-pint that costs you £12”. A pint of Wolfpack certainly slips down easily.

The pair have a majority stake in Wolfpack after investing their own capital in the bar, and the double-decker bus which sells their lager outside the Saracens stadium. They’ve also had backing from multi-millionaire Saracens owner Nigel Wray.

Wray’s business partnerships with Saracens players have caused no little controversy lately, amid allegations that the funding was being used as a backdoor to get around the £7 million cap for each club. Saracens insist they’ve done nothing wrong — as does Wray — but Premiership Rugby are investigating the matter.

The pair are a little chary about the subject. Wyles says Wray made a “purely commercial decision”.

Hargreaves adds: “We did have other options but we thought why wouldn’t we work with one of our mentors? A guy like Nigel, who makes every single investment based on what he sees in the market — it could go well, it could go badly. Why should he not be allowed to do that?”

He adds: “What’s pretty important to us is that we funded it to start, we built the business and ability to give ourselves opportunity to pitch for money.”

For Wyles, more recently retired, throwing himself into business is a partial substitute for being around top-level sport and both seem alive to the potential opportunities of building a brand for the longer term.

Hargreaves says: “If you build a business around exiting it’s a short-term mentality. Who knows what’s next: is it a Wolfpack gym, or something more lifestyle-orientated?”

It looks like thirsty work ahead for rugby’s lagerpreneurs.

Founded: 2014

Staff: six permanent staff (seven bar staff)

Turnover: £1 million (2019)

Business idol: None, although Wyles does a lot of reading, including Shoe Dog, the memoir by the co-founder of Nike, Phil Knight.