PDA

View Full Version : Shut up about Barclay Perkins - How the Scottish brewing industry disappeared



Blog Tracker
31-03-2012, 08:08
Visit the Shut up about Barclay Perkins site (http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2012/03/how-scottish-brewing-industry.html)

The title says it all. In an easy to digest table form I'll be showing how the Scottish brewing industry all but disappeared in the space of a few years at the end of the 1950's and beginning of the 1960's.


http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ETE3eZiTNLM/T3LL4ucRj2I/AAAAAAAAI1I/1wd4XPVE2EI/s320/Ballingalls_Export_Ale_2.JPG (http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ETE3eZiTNLM/T3LL4ucRj2I/AAAAAAAAI1I/1wd4XPVE2EI/s1600/Ballingalls_Export_Ale_2.JPG)
There were two main motors of rationalisation: Scottish Brewers (later Scottish & Newcastle) and Eddie Taylor's United Breweries (one of the foundation stones of Bass Charrington). Though eventually all of Britain's Big Six brewers, with the exception of Courage, got a piece of the pie. Whitbread and Watney came late to the table and scraped up the few remaining scraps. And, of course, regional brewer Vaux, who already had considerable trade in Scotland, picked up a surprisingly large share.

As you can see in the table below, most breweries didn't stay open long after purchase. Most closed within a few months. For those that did continue to brew, it was mostly only a stay of execution. Only three of the breweries in the table remain open: Belhaven, Caledonian and Tennent. Odd that Scottish & Newcastle, with its roots north of the border, should have closed every one of its Scottish breweries.

Given John Calder's long association with both Arrol's and Allsopp (later Ind Coope and Allsopp then Allied Breweries), it's slightly odd that his firm should have ended up in the Bass Charrington camp. Allied themselves missedout on the takeover frenzy, contenting themselves with the Arrol's brewery that they had owned since 1930.

By 1970, only two breweries remained independent: Maclay and Belhaven. The former abandonned brewing in 1999, turning itself into a pub company. The latter eventually fell prey to an English firm, Greene King, in 2005.




How the Scottish brewing industry disappeared


Company
Brewery
Town
Total Capital £
Takeover Company
Date of Takeover
closed
Brewery group


Aitchison
Canongate
Edinburgh
400,000
Hammonds UBs.
1959
1961
Bass Charrington


Aitken
Falkirk
Falkirk
927,000
United Bs.
1960
1966
Bass Charrington


Arrol
Alloa
Alloa

Allsopp
1930
1998
Allied


Ballingall
Park, Pleasance
Dundee
75,000


1964



Bernard
New Edinburgh
Edinburgh
1,075,000
Scottish Bs.
1960
1960
Scottish & Newcastle


Blair
Townhead
Alloa
200,000
G. Younger
1959
1959
Bass Charrington


Calder
Shore
Alloa
525,000
United Bs.
1960
1961 (1921)
Bass Charrington


Campbell, Hope & King
Argyle
Edinburgh
250,000
Whitbread
1967
1970
Whitbread


James Deuchar
Lochside
Montrose

Newcastle Bs.
1956
1956
Scottish & Newcastle


Robert Deuchar
Duddingston
Edinburgh

Newcastle Bs.
1954
1961
Scottish & Newcastle


Drybrough
Edinburgh
Edinburgh
300,000
Watney Mann
1965
1987
Watney


Dudgeon
Belhaven
Dunbar
-






Fowler
Prestonpans
Prestonpans
300,000
United Bs.
1960
1962
Bass Charrington


Gordon & Blair
Craigwell
Edinburgh

Mackay
1954
1953
Watney


Jeffrey
Heriot
Edinburgh
280,000
United Bs.
1960
1992
Bass Charrington


Lorimer & Clark
Caledonian
Edinburgh
100,000
Vaux
1947

Vaux


Mackay
St.Leonard's
Edinburgh
-
Watney Mann
1963
1963
Watney


Maclay
Thistle
Alloa
150,000


1999



Maclachlan
Castle
Edinburgh
600,000
Tennent
1960
1966
Bass Charrington


MacLennan & Urquhart
Dalkeith
Dalkeith
-
Aitchison
1955
1958
Bass Charrington


McEwan
Fountain
Edinburgh
1,000,000
Scottish Bs.
1931
2005
Scottish & Newcastle


Morison
Edinburgh
Edinburgh
-
Scottish Bs.
1960
1960
Scottish & Newcastle


Murray
Craigmillar
Edinburgh
375,000
United Bs.
1960
1963
Bass Charrington


Steel, Coulson
Croft-an-Righ
Edinburgh
140,000
Vaux
1959
1960
Vaux


Tennent
Wellpark
Glasgow
2,250,000
Charrington
1963

Bass Charrington


Wright
Perth
Perth
-
Vaux
1961
1961
Vaux


Young
Ladywell
Musselburgh
30,000
Whitbread
1968
1969
Whitbread


G. Younger
Candleriggs
Alloa
750,000
United Bs.
1960
1963
Bass Charrington


R. Younger
St. Ann's
Edinburgh
580,000
Scottish Bs.
1960
1961
Scottish & Newcastle


W. Younger
Abbey, Holyrood
Edinburgh
1,000,000
Scottish Bs.
1931
1986
Scottish & Newcastle


Usher
Park
Edinburgh
403,000
Vaux
1960
1981
Vaux


Sources:


Brewery Manual 1955, 1960, 1965 (via "A History of the Brewing Industry in Scotland" by Ian Donnachie, 1998, page 240.)


"A Century of British Brewers", Barber, 2005.


Scottish Brewing Archive website



There's one firm in the table that wasn't taken over: Ballingall. They just gave up brewing in 1964, though continued to supply their 7 pubs with beer from Drybrough until finally closing the business in 1968.

The process of rationalisation and closure in Scotland was an extreme, more concentrated form of what happened in England during the 1950's and 1960's. Except in England many independent companies not only survived but later thrived. Who has disappeared? The large brewing groups that were the result of the takeover frenzy. There's a lesson to be learned there.https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5445569787371915337-9196014820858315524?l=barclayperkins.blogspot.com


More... (http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2012/03/how-scottish-brewing-industry.html)