BeerMike : Slain by Giants

Last month I heard about the dreadful news that Sharp’s Brewery will be closing their site in Rock, Cornwall at the end of this year. Since 2011, the brewery has been run by Canadian brewing giant Molson Coors, their excuse was down to economics as Simon Kerry (managing director at Molson Coors UK) recently explained “we have invested significantly in the site and Sharp’s brands over that time and every step has been taken to try and avoid this outcome. However, the site is no longer financially sustainable as part of our national network.” [1] According to the megabrewer this move will lead cost savings and efficiencies imperative to its long term growth, yet in this process this will potentially lead to redundancies of up to 50 workers so understandably there has been outcry in the region, with the local MP Ben Maguire (North Cornwall) criticising Molson’s Coors decision to move production out of Cornwall whilst CAMRA has been on the warpath stating yet another part of Britain’s brewing heritage has been slain by a global brewing giant. Roger Protz noted “the history, the heritage and the popularity of cask is lost on Carlsberg, Heineken and Molson Coors. Their aim is a simple one: to make the same liquid in every market where they operate and to give it a long shelf life, aided by filtration, pasteurisation and a heavy dose of carbon dioxide.” [2] Protz also points out a notable decline in the quality of Sharp’s flagship product Doom Bar (4%) as being synonymous of Molson’s Coors meddling with the brewery, where they tinkered with its recipe, used cheaper hops and malt and dispensed the beers to pubs as soon as it left the fermenters, in 2015 they even admitted to producing the bottled version at their facilities in Burton making a mockery of it claim as a Cornish Beer. In recent years, Molson’s Coors have been responsible in playing their part in destroying Britain’s brewing heritage, in 2020 they closed Burtonwood Brewery with the loss of 25 jobs, at the time they claimed Burtonwood only produced one percent of their volume, Adam Everett noted “Molson Coors says that the move will 'help to drive efficiencies' within the business, with production set to be transferred to other sites in the UK.” [3] They also ceased production of Worthington’s White Shield (5.6%), and last year closed the National Brewery Centre, evicting its tenants the Heritage Brewing Co. in the process. There is nothing unique about the closure of Sharp's brewery site, this incident seems rather familiar as we’ve been here before, over the past few decades there have been numerous high-profile examples of megabrewers closing popular regional breweries, with each closure receiving a wall of outrage from the usual parties. While the instances of larger breweries taken over smaller competitors and closing their sites have been occurring since the 19th century, with the rise of the global megabrewers in the past 30 years, the spate of takeovers and shutdowns have become more ruthless, radically overhauling and diminishing established beer brands, destroying breweries who have operated from several decades to a century or more, transferring brands to mega-plants and reducing the choice for the consumer, all for the cause of efficiency.

At the turn of this century Scottish & Newcastle was the largest brewer in the UK with a vast number of breweries both domestically and abroad in its portfolio. Over the previous 20 years they rolled their tanks across the UK’s brewery scene, acquiring the likes of Home Brewery (1986), Theakston (1987) and Courage (1995). In 2004 their announced the closure of their long running Edinburgh and Newcastle sites and transferred production to a brewery in Dunston following their buyout of Northern Clubs Federation Brewery. Around this time, they also took a 30% share in Caledonian Brewery in Edinburgh while allowing the brewers to remain independent. Four years later they brought out the remaining shares and took over the company. To surmise the quote “there’s always a bigger fish”, later in 2008 S&N were taken over the global brewing giants Heineken and Carlsberg for £7.8m, the name promptly disappeared the following year and became Heineken UK. In 2010, the Dunston site was closed and in 2022 Heineken announced the closure of the former Caledonian Brewery site. It was the last major brewery in Edinburgh to close, Matt Callan from Heineken UK stated “the sad fact is, its Victorian infrastructure means significant inefficiencies and costs, particularly as it is operating below capacity. To modernise the brewery, and to meet our own sustainability commitments, would require considerable ongoing investment, which would make operating the brewery economically unviable.” [4] They made an agreement with Belhaven (via Greene King) to transfer production of their brands (Deuchars, Coast to Coast, and Maltsmiths) to their site in Dunbar, while the site in Edinburgh closed and was later sold to Artisan Real Estate for conversion into residential flats. Boddington’s Brewery in Strangeways, Manchester, was the biggest brewer in the area, established in 1778, by its height in the mid 1980’s the brewery employed 280 people, produced 500,000 barrels per year and operated 580 tied houses, their legendary Boddington’s Bitter (4%) was one of the highest selling beers in UK and was even exported abroad, the beer was affectionately known as ‘the cream of Manchester’. In 1989 their independence came to an end when Ewart Boddington sold the brewery and its brands to Whitbread for £50.7 million. Under Whitbread’s watch, production and sales increased and the canned version of Boddies became the highest selling bitter in the UK thanks to extensive marketing, meanwhile the entire pub estate was sold to Greenalls, later that decade they acquired the likes of Flowers (1998) where they transferred production to Strangeways and Bass (2000) respectively. The same year Whitbread was absorbed into Belgian brewer Interbrew, by this time sales of Boddies were falling due changes in the market, the smell of closure was in the air when the kegging facility of the site was closed in February 2003 with the loss of 50 jobs. In August they attempted to revive its fortunes with a new cask variant measuring 4.1%, which Melanie Godesell noted “the activity saw extra malt added to the Boddingtons recipe and overhauled beer pumps installed in the on-trade.” [5] This initiative failed to gather enough demand and the writing was on the wall. The following year, Interbrew merged with AmBev to become InBev, and later that September they announced the closure of the Strangeways site, citing they had too many breweries in their portfolio and had to make reductions, Phillip Malpress (InBev corporate affairs director) stated "this building was built in the Victorian times and it is an old historic brewery but it was a victim of its age. It is an inflexible brewery - it can't bottle or can and customer needs have moved on.” [6] A spirited campaign was engineered by the brewery workers, supported by their union The Transport and General Workers along with Manchester City Council, local MP’s, regional MEP representatives and Corrie actor Bruce Jones, a website called ‘Save the Cream’ was also established, which received 150,000 hits from 43 countries. Despite this, closure plans continued unabated and the last brew was produced on 4th February 2005. A T&G spokesman mournfully responded to Manchester Evening News "today sees 227 years of brewing history being poured down the drain by a huge corporation which is only interested in creating massive profits by mass producing beer.” [6] The closure resulted in 36 redundancies while a further 19 workers were transferred to other sites, production was moved to InBev’s sites in Samlesbury and Magor. Boddies continues to be produced albeit at other sites, and last year the cask version was revived by J.W. Lees, returning production back to Manchester.

Since establishing in 1978, Halewood has become the UK's largest independent artisanal spirits distiller with operations in six other countries outside the UK. A decade ago, they started turning their attention towards the brewing industry, in 2017 they took majority shares in Sadler’s Brewery in Lye, and Hawkshead Brewery in Staveley respectively. While the breweries were allowed to continue operating independently, in late 2019 they announced the closure of the Sadler’s Brewery site, transferring operations to Hawkshead, resulting the redundancy of 26 workers. The local CAMRA branch's brewery liaison officer, Steve Pratt, said: “this is a devastating blow, not only for the hard-working employees at the Brewhouse and taproom at Lye, but also for the traditions and history of local brewing in the Black Country.” [7] In a cruel twist of fate, in 2024, Halewood closed down Hawkshead’s site in Staveley, citing that the site was proving unproductive, the manually operated equipment was inefficient for increased production and the increased car-park charges were instrumental in reducing footfall at the beer hall. Mill Yard owner David Brockbank refuted suggestions that local car parking charges were due a drop in trade, he attempted to set up a community brewery and beer hall on the Staveley site producing craft beers, run as a co-operative, yet Halewood declined his requests. The closure resulted in 12 redundancies, Tim Farron MP (Westmoreland and Lonsdale) stated he was appalled by Halewood’s poor treatment of the staff and deserting the local community. All operations were ultimately transferred to Halewood’s site in Flookburgh. In February 2018, Fuller’s brought out Dark Star Brewery in Partridge Green for an undisclosed sum, with the promise of maintaining and investing in their site, increasing sales of its brands, such as Hophead (3.4%), APA (4.7%), Dark Star Original (5%) and Revelation (5.7%), and allowing to them to continue operating independently. Meanwhile, in May 2015, Meantime Brewery in Greenwich was brought out by SAB Miller and a year later SAB Miller was taken over by AB InBev who sold Meantime to Japanese megabrewers Asahi who own breweries across Europe, the US and Australia. In 2019, Asahi extended its tentacles towards Fuller’s for 250m, at the time Fuller’s claimed the takeover would allow them to invest in new markets and increase sales of its beer brands both nationally and internationally. At the deal was heavily criticised by beer fans and industry figures citing an end of an era in British brewing, bringing rise to the term ‘megabrew’ where large breweries are brought by even larger companies. Gillian Hough, a member of CAMRA’s national executive and current vice chair noted at the time “years of consolidation of large parts of the brewing industry into the hands of a few global players has been to the detriment of our brewing heritage. This worrying trend of further domination of global brewers is putting choice at the bar and the diversity of British beer at risk - and needs constant monitoring by the UK’s Competition authorities.” [8] Ultimately her fears were realised, in November 2022 Asahi announced the closure of Dark Star site in Partridge Green due to the brewery operating at ‘significantly below capacity’, they moved production of its entire portfolio over to Meantime Brewery in Greenwich. Two years later in March 2024, they drew their scythe again when they announced the closure of Meantime’s site in Greenwich, moving production of both Maritime and Dark Star to Fuller’s site in Chiswick. Asahi argued that by moving all their local beer brands to one site in Chiswick it would be mutually beneficial to the company. The move resulted in some redundancies, while some staff members were offered alternative employment, including posts at Fuller’s site. Daryl Chamberlain notes the closure of the Greenwich site is likely due to local redevelopment projects, stating “Meantime’s move will prompt speculation about the fate of the brewery site — while there has been a lot of new housing in the area, the land could also be attractive for logistics companies with the Silvertown Tunnel opening next year.” [9] In other words, the closure of the brewery site in Greenwich followed the usual trope of making a ‘fast buck’, a common business initiative among the mega-brewers.

Of all the global brewing giants with the most scalps in recent years, this accolade has to go to Carlsberg Marston’s Brewing Company (now Carlsberg Britvic) which formed in 2020 following a merger between Marstons Brewery and global mega-brewer Carlsberg. In the last few years, they have closed down the likes of Wychwood, Ringwood, Banks’s and Jennings, on each occasion they spluttered the familiar excuses of problems with efficiency and the lowering of demand in cask ale. This all links back to Marstons, in 1999 the brewery became part of the Wolverhampton & Dudley Breweries amalgamation along with Banks’s, Thompson, Evershed and Mansfield Breweries respectively. In 2005, W&C acquired Jenning’s Brewery in Cockermouth, reaction at the time was frosty as locals warned that W&C were only interested in acquiring Jennings' sizeable estate of 100 plus pubs around the county. Later the same year, Marston’s took over production under licence from Interbrew of Draught Bass, two years later they officially changed the name of W&C to Marstons PLC. Shortly after they acquired Ringwood Brewery based in Hampshire for £19.2million, the acquisition also included their collection of seven pubs and Château de Fayolle, a wine estate in the Bergerac region and its vineyard. This was on the promise of keeping the brewery open and maintaining its brands. People were critical of the move, CAMRA expressed fears this would create a domino effect of further consolidation of larger brewers consolidating smaller competitors, reducing the variety in consumer choice. Mike Benner, CAMRA’s then chief executive wrote “as one of the larger companies buys a brewery and expands its estate, competitors start hunting for their next purchase to keep up. Our fear is that an increasing number of smaller breweries will be lost if this race continues and consumer choice will suffer as a result.”[10] Predictably, in the ensuing years commentators claimed the quality of their beers plummeted while the personal touch disappeared as the brewery became more corporate. Meanwhile, back at Wychwood, during the Nineties under Ian Rogers’ watch they managed to establish a pub chain of 33 pubs and propel their Hobgoblin brand to becoming one of the highest selling bottled beers in the UK thanks to some ingenious marketing tactics. The rot set in 2001 when Rogers decided to sell the brewery for £2.25 million and the pub chain for £9m, the brewery was sold to Refresh UK while the pub estate was acquired by Balaclava. In 2008, Refresh was brought out by Marstons, who by this time were fast establishing their business empire. Multi-national megabrewer Carlsberg first drew its attention towards the British brewing industry back in 1993 when Allied Lyons (who ran Tetley in Leeds) sold a 50% stake to Carlsberg, and four years later Carlsberg fully took over the company. In 2008 they announced the closure of brewery site and planned to transfer production to Banks’s in Wolverhampton. By December 2010, production of their cask brands moved to Wolverhampton while their keg products were transferred to Northampton and Hartlepool respectively. Carlsberg cited that due to tough market conditions they could no longer justify running several breweries in the UK, so the closure was necessitated in order to maximise efficiency. There was a public outcry towards this, pub landlord Dave ‘Tetley Dave’ Parker of The Shoulder of Mutton quoted at the time “if you close Tetley, you might as well close Leeds”. [11] Gary Lumby (president of Leeds Chamber of Commerce) said the closure would adversely affect the local jobs market while CAMRA criticised the megabrewer for failing to promote the Tetley brand sufficiently, Bob Stukins (CAMRA vice chairman) argued “while we recognise the enormous challenges facing the brewing industry at present, I think this is a short-sighted decision. Recent statistics clearly show that real ale is performing better than other beer styles in a declining market.” [12] The final brew at Leeds took place on the 22nd February 2011 and 170 workers were made redundant; The closure of the brewery was an end of an era for the local area, and in retrospect a warning from history given the spate of high-profile brewery closures that would follow in recent years.

Following their merger with Marstons PLC in May 2020 for the considerable sum of £780m, CMBC’s ‘reign of terror’ began in earnest. In September 2022, CMBC announced the closure of Jennings site in Cockermouth with the intention of transferring operations to their site in Burton. The reason for its closure CMBC claimed was due to the site operating below capacity for some time and a significant decline in volumes brought on by the pandemic. Nik Antona (then CAMRA chairman) bluntly riposted that it a devastating blow to the area’s brewing heritage, though hardly surprising given Carlsberg had a reputation of getting rid of local breweries, noting “unfortunately, Marston’s are now under the control of Carlsberg to a certain extent… and maybe they’re looking at it with a more financial view. Accountants are brewing, if you like, rather than the brewers.” [13] The closures of local breweries were becoming an increasingly frequent event as the megabrewer was seeking to cut corners in the market, the following year CMBC announced the closure of Wychwood’s Brewery in Witney due to a decline in demand in cask beer. Following a break clause with the landlord who owned the site, they intended on moving production of Wychwood’s brands Hobgoblin, Firecatcher and Dry Neck beers at CMBC’s other sites, so they could consolidate their network and improve efficiency and productivity for supporting ongoing investment. CAMRA Oxfordshire chair Tony Goulding stated “it's an absolute tragedy but we've been waiting for it. They've even been brewing other ales in Witney and transporting them to their other sites. They are not worried about craft ales. Big is beautiful. It's cheaper to produce mass produced ales never mind the quality. It's nothing short of a tragedy.” [14] The brewery closed in November that year, bringing an end of 40 years of production in the area. David Jesudason describes this decision as “it does feel like the end of the road for a brand with such a storied history—an underdog that managed to become one of the most popular beers in the U.K., not to mention a small but one-time successful pub chain. For Hobgoblin there will be no blaze of glory, just a slow fade to black.” [15] As the year drew to a close, the following month CMBC announced they would soon be closing the Ringwood Brewery site, transferring production to other parts of their network, cask versions of Forty Niner (4.9%), Razorback (3.8%) and Boondoogle (4.2%) were moved to Banks’s Brewery while Old Thumper (5.6%) and bottled production would continue at Burton. Paul Davies (CEO of CMBC) noted “having, over the last six months, been unable to secure a sale of our Ringwood Brewery operation in Hampshire, we have made the difficult decision to announce our intention to close the site. Given its limited space and residential location, the expansion and improvements required for the site to be competitive would be challenging and extremely costly.” [16] The brewery closed the following year with the loss of ten jobs and the site was later sold to Pennyfarthing Homes who plan to convert the site into residential properties. This seemed a bittersweet ending for a brewery established in 1979 by craft beer pioneer Peter Austin who set up the business in order to challenge the monopoly of the Big Six breweries, only for it to be engulfed and devoured by its successors. Meanwhile CMBC’s filleting of the British brewing industry continued in earnest when they announced in November 2024 the impending closure of Banks’s Brewery in Wolverhampton the following Summer after 150 years of operation. The decision was apparently due to current climate for cask ale and the loss of the contract to brew and distribute Mahou’s San Miguel through CMBC, which in turn radically affected their network, forcing them to consolidate operations towards their site in Burton. The new Mayor for West Midlands, Richard Parker called for an urgent summit meeting with CMBC to discuss closure and loss of jobs in a bid to save the brewery, while newly appointed MP, Warwinder Juss (Wolverhampton West) mentioned the brewery’s closure in her maiden speech at the House of Commons quoting it would be a massive blow to the area’s heritage. CAMRA were also manoeuvres, its recently elected chairman Ash Corbett Collins stated “this is devastating but predictable news from CMBC. Following the buyout of CMBC by Carlsberg — essentially turning Marston’s brewing business into a globally owned brand — we expected news like this sooner rather than later.” [17] Banks’s closed shortly after producing their final brew at the end of August last year, bringing an end to the brewing industry in the local area.

In the spate of brewing closures engineered by global megabrewers, particularly in the last few years, it seems that we have now become accustomed to the idea, while being fed the usual spin of the changes to the cask ale market, instability brought on by the cost-of-living crisis, the drive to improve efficiency and consolidate production at mega brewing plants in areas like Burton. The so-called decline in cask ale has also been thrown in disrepute since regional brewers including Timothy Taylor, JW Lees and St. Austell’s has seen cask sales booming in the past few years. Roger Protz summed this up “the difference between regional brewers and Carlsberg is that the regionals have a passion and commitment to ale and they busily promote their beers. The Danish giant on the other hand has no interest in the style, cask beer in particular with its short shelf life, and does little or nothing to advertise them.” [18] For years we have been warned about the detrimental effects of the global megabrewers on the UK brewing industry and its only getting worse, yet little seems to be done to stem the flow of blood, even CAMRA in all its bluster has failed to promote and engineer legislation that would protect regional independent brewers from being pillaged and destroyed by multi-national brewing conglomerates. Amelia Wallace Jones stated last year “in May, the Society of Independent Brewers and Associates (SIBA) warned that rising costs and intense competition from global brewing giants continue to put mounting pressure on independent breweries.” [19] So, the drive to protect our industry is more needed than ever before. Yet, among the ruins there have been new shoots of life for the brewing industry, in the case of Jennings after their site in Cockermouth was closed, it was put on the market by TSR, who insinuated the idea that the site would be suitable for continuing as a commercial brewery. After much protracted wrangling, in February 2025 it was announced that the site was purchased by Kurt and Rebecca Canfield for an undisclosed sum, they subsequently brought back the brands, trademarks and recipes from CMBC (now Carlsberg Britivic) and set about restoring the site in time for it’s reopening later that summer. The brewery reopened to a rousing spectacle at their Black Ram event held on 3rd July 2025, 160 people were in attendance along with former staff members. Under the egis of Chris France (MD) and Buster Grant (Head Brewer) together with a small team, they have revived many of its once iconic beers including Sneck Lifter (5.1%) and Cocker Hoop (4.6%). Ash Corbett-Collins summed up the situation “global companies should learn from Carlsberg’s mistakes. Consumers want to see their favourite local beers on the bar at pubs, clubs and taprooms across the country.” [19] Meanwhile over in Wolverhampton, a few months ago it was announced that Springbanks Brewery is in the process of establishing a brewery in the area from a base in Lincoln Street. Laura Hadland noted “the brewery came into being after the news of the impending closure of Banks’s Brewery in Wolverhampton broke early in 2025. Director Peter Atwal decided that he wanted to preserve his hometown’s proud brewing tradition by starting a brewery of his own and also building a collection of local breweriania and oral histories for display in the Lincoln Street building.” [20] The brewery has utilized a Burton union set donated by Epochal of Glasgow which folded in 2024, and they hope to fill void left by the demise of Banks’s and Springfield Brewery (which closed in 1991) and restore the brewing industry back to Wolverhampton later this year.