Scottish & Newcastle, the last remaining ‘macro’ brewer in British hands, is no more. This morning the board agreed the price they’re prepared to take from Carlsberg and Heineken to be bought and broken up between the two companies.
The offer, through newly-formed joint venture Sunrise Acquisitions, will see Carlsberg take full ownership of Eastern European joint venture Baltic Beverages Holding, as well as S&N’s French, Greek, Chinese and Vietnamese operations. Heineken will own S&N’s operations in the UK and Ireland, Portuguese, Finnish, Belgian, US and Indian operations.
This means John Smith’s – the UK’s largest ale brand – will be owned and run by Heineken. I wonder if they’ll do the brand as much justice as Carlsberg did Tetley?
It does mean that the likes of Greene King, Fuller’s, Wells & Youngs and Marston’s are now the largest British brewers. I quite like that.
“It does mean that the likes of Greene King, Fuller’s, Wells & Youngs and Marston’s are now the largest British brewers. I quite like that.”
ME TOO !
Yes. Good that there is some honest beer left. But should you not run a strike, or something? I mean, ‘John Smith’ in German hands, really… But I suppose, that’s the way the global market works. Interesting though, the S&N just a few years ago bought the last remaining macro brewery in Finland, and we were not too hot about that. That left room for indie kind of brewing in Finland, but the remaining ‘large’ brewers were not much better than Hartwall and Sinebrychoff had been, they were just provincial.
But I like Wells&Youngs and Martson’s, so I guess you have a point.