WHEN Terry Dicks's business began to struggle in the recession, he turned to beer – as a way of boosting his profits.

The Prestbury entrepreneur used his passion for real ale to start an innovative new website which is taking the pub world by storm.

Yourround.co.uk allows beer enthusiasts to track their favourite beverages and will even email or text them when they arrive in their local watering hole.

Terry, 49, came up with the idea as a stopgap measure while the usual work of his IT company Innoteq was put on hiatus.

He said: "It's something that I've had in the back of my head for some time. We were twiddling our thumbs and needed to keep hold of our workers, so this was ideal.

"We redirected our staff to work on this site, which is one of a kind. It allows people to log on for free and receive real-time updates about their favourite beers.

"The problem with real ale is that it only has about three days when it is at its best. Lots of pubs put new beers on everyday, so keeping track of them is practically impossible. This site solves that problem."

Innoteq, which specialises in software for the aerospace industry, was founded in Prestbury a decade ago. Its business began to stall when aircraft manufacturer Boeing delayed its new 747 programme.

Terry said he plans to return to his usual line of work soon, but will also keep running the website.

All three Cheltenham breweries and 23 of the town's pubs have already signed up to the site. Interest has also spread from Lancashire to Dorset and Terry said he is getting new members on a daily basis.

Landlords can upload their stock details onto the website.

"The feedback we have had already has been really good," said Terry. "As far as we know, it's completely unique. It will always be free for the drinker. They can log on at anytime. We are looking to charge a small fee to pubs and breweries who want to post what beers they have available.

"We will even be able to do stuff like tell landlords what beers are most popular on the site, so they can take advantage of that in their orders."

Matt Walker, landlord of The Beehive, said: "I think it's a very clever idea. Everyone has a favourite beer and real ales change more regularly than most. We only signed up to it last week, but when we changed the barrels our assistant manager got a text saying we now had Doombar in, so he came and had a pint.

"That's our first success."

OPINION, P8