DAVID Soley is an accountant turned engineering boss, turned brewery boss. He is the brain for figures behind the Castle Eden operation.
The former chief executive of Teesside-based Davy Offshore used a healthy payout from his former employers to help finance the deal to buy Castle Eden from its former owners Whitbread.
He has never divulged exactly how much he put into the brewery, but it is believed to be substantially more than the £150,000 regional selective assistance grant from the Department of Trade and Industry. He and his partner David Beecroft, from Thrislington Partitions in Newton Aycliffe, are Darlington born and bred.
Mr Soley is a businessman who believes in getting down at the coal face to solve the problems and nurture growth.
He has overseen Castle Eden's launch of its own pub estate, Castle Eden Inns, which started with the take over of three Tap and Spile real ale pubs in Darlington, Newcastle and North Shields, as well as the Masters Continental bar in Hartlepool.
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