Scottish & Newcastle Breweries plc (brewers, licensed premises & leisure group : 1960- : Edinburgh, Scotland)

Scottish Brewers Ltd was registered in 1931 as a limited liability company to acquire William McEwan & Co Ltd , Holyrood Brewery, Holyrood Road, Edinburgh, Scotland (closed 1986). The company took over Red Tower Lager Brewery Ltd , Royal Brewery, Manchester, England , in 1956; Thomas & James Bernard Ltd , brewers, Edinburgh; J & J Morison Ltd , brewers, Edinburgh, and Robert Younger Ltd , brewers, Edinburgh, in 1960. It merged with Newcastle Breweries Ltd , Tyne Brewery, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England , in 1960 and changed its name to Scottish & Newcastle Breweries Ltd . Mackinlay-McPherson Ltd , Edinburgh, was formed in 1962 to combine and run the wine and spirit side of the business, gaining control of Glenallchie Distillery Co Ltd , Aberlour-on-Spey, Scotland , and Isle of Jura Distillery Co Ltd , Craighouse, Isle of Jura, Scotland , in the 1960s. The company acquired County Hotels & Wine Co Ltd in 1962; Christopher & Co Ltd , wine merchants, in 1972; Gough Brothers Ltd , wine and spirit merchants (sold 1984), in 1979; Home Brewery plc , Nottingham, England , in 1986; and Matthew Brown plc , brewers, Blackburn, Lancashire, England , in 1987.

In 1989 the company formed its Leisure Division after purchasing 74.8 per cent of Center Parcs Ltd , provision of lodgings, Newark, Nottinghamshire, England , (the remaining 25.2 per cent were bought in 1991, and the entire business sold in 2000) and in 1990 a Retail Division was formed which meant that retail was no longer integrated with the beer business. In 1993 the company acquired the Chef & Brewer Ltd estate, Northampton, England, from Grand Metropolitan plc , London, England, and in 1999 the pubs, pub restaurant and lodge business of Greenall Whitley plc , Warrington, England . Following Scottish & Newcastle's acquisition of Courage & Co Ltd , London, England, Scottish Courage Ltd was formed in 1995. The move doubled the scale of the beer business and brought brands including Foster's, Kronenbourg and John Smith's into the company's portfolio. In March 2000 Scottish & Newcastle formed a major partnership with Groupe Danone's beer business interests, Brasseries Kronenbourg of Strasbourg, France , and Alken Maes of Waarloos, Belgium . This partnership has created a major new European beer group. In August 2000 the company entered into a joint venture to run the Portuguese brewer and distributor Central De Cervejas (Centralcer) of Lisbon, Portugal.

In 2002 the company employed 40,000 people in the UK and Europe, and continued to brew at the Fountain Brewery, Edinburgh, the Tyne Brewery, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, T & R Theakston's Brewery, Masham, North Yorkshire, England , John Smith's Brewery, Tadcaster, North Yorkshire, England , the Berkshire Brewery, Reading, England , the Royal Brewery, Manchester, England , and at Beamish & Crawford, Cork, Ireland .

Sources: Richmond, Lesley and Turton, Alison (eds). The Brewing Industry. A Guide to Historical Records ( Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 1990 )

Scottish & Newcastle Company website

From the guide to the Records of Scottish & Newcastle Breweries plc, brewers, licensed premises & leisure group, Edinburgh, Scotland, 1961-2000, (Glasgow University Archive Services)