A new managing director has taken sole control at the region's leading private maltster, pledging to continue the work of his long-standing predecessor.

Adrian Dyter has spent months shadowing Euan Macpherson, but has now taken full control of EDP Top100 member Crisp Malting Group, based at Great Ryburgh.

Mr Macpherson has retired after 29 years at the helm, in which time he has seen production grow to 430,000 tonnes a year, around 5% of EU output, and enough to brew around 64 billion pints of beer, the company estimates.

Mr Dyter said he would make his priority the full integration of Tivoli Maltz, the company's new acquisition with maltings in Hamburg in Germany and Bydgoszcz in Poland.

'We've had the benefit of stable leadership and ownership for more than 10 years, and therefore we can bring that to other parts of the group,' said Mr Dyter, adding he would look to 'harness the strengths' of the new companies.

He said Crisp was 'well set up' to withstand the turbulence of Britain's vote to leave the European Union, with an international outlook beyond the single market.

'There's not a lot of trade from Crisp to the near continent, or from our European businesses to the UK, so we don't anticipate much problem there,' said Mr Dyter.

'We have a long history of exporting and have operated in many different administrative and tariff environments and have managed to execute our business accordingly.'

The company has also seen strong growth from the craft beer market recently, and Mr Dyter said Crisp was looking to build upon this with the sale of traditional English pale ale and Maris Otter malts in Poland in its European markets.

The maltster supports a partnership of more than 280 barley growers in Norfolk alone, and its malt is used to make products as diverse as Scotch whisky and Japanese lager.

It has a turnover of more than £150m.

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