Monday 5 October 2015

John Smith acquisitions (part two)

The map of Simonds brewery purchases was so revealing, I’ve decided to do the same for John Smith.

And blow me, as soon as I looked at it, I noticed something. Again, it’s to do with major transport routes. While Simonds takeovers followed the Great Western Railway east to west, John Smiths mostly went north and south. Approximately following the A1 and East Coast mainline. Take a look:





Black: original brewery
Green: <= 1920
Red: 1930 – 1945
Orange:  > 1950


Though in addition there’s a little leakage over the Pennines to Lancashire.

I’m definitely going to continue with this. It’s so revealing.

5 comments:

Rob Sterowski said...

But isn’t it precisely what you would expect – that a brewery would take over others in the surrounding geographical area, where the newly acquired pubs would still be near its own distribution area?

Ron Pattinson said...

Barm,

but it isn't in every surrounding area. It's North - South along the A1. They didn't expand eastwards at all.

Ike said...

You missed out Barnsley Brewery which would have emphasized you theory even more.

Ron Pattinson said...

Ike,

I can't believe I left off Barnsley Brewery. A favourite of my youth. Now fixed.

Ike said...

It's probably psychological. You just didn't want to see it go.