George Younger goes public

While we're on the topic of brewery share issues, I may as well use up this one, too. It's the prospectus from the launch of Alloa brewer George Younger.

It's quite a lengthy document (despite me chopping out the less interesting bits), but does contain quite a lot of useful information.

The SUBSCRIPTION LIST for the UNDERMENTIONED PREFERENCE SHARE CAPITAL will be OPENED on MONDAY, the 1st, and it will be CLOSED on or BEFORE TUESDAY. the 24 MARCH, 1897, at 3.30 P.M.
APPLICATIONS WILL BE RECEIVED BY THE COMMERCIAL BANK OF SCOTLAND, LIMITED, AT ITS HEAD OFFICE IN EDINBURGH; AT ITS OFFICE. 62 LOMBARD STREET, LONDON; AT ITS OFFICE, BUCHANAN STREET, GLASGOW: AND AT ANY OF ITS COUNTRY BRANCHES.

GEORGE YOUNGER & SON, LIMITED.
INCORPORATED UNDER THE COMPANIES ACTS. 1862 TO 1893.

CAPITAL	£500,000,
Divided Into
25,000 5 PER CENT CUMULATIVE PREFERENCE SHARES of £10 EACH,	£250,000
12,500 ORDINARY SHARES of £10 EACH,	125,000
and 12,500 DEFERRED SHARES of £10 EACH	125,000
	£500,000

The PREFERENCE SHARES are entitled to a CUMULATIVE PREFERENTIAL DIVIDEND of FIVE PER CENT. PER ANNUM, payable out of the profits of the Company half-yearly, at 1st March and 1st September, and will also be entitled to priority over the Ordinary Shares and Deferred Shares in respect of Capital.

The whole of the above-mentioned PREFERENCE SHARES, amounting to £250,000, are now offered for SUBSCRIPTION at a premium of £1 per share, payable in the following instalments, viz. :-

On Application,	£1 per Share.
On Allotment (inclusive of the £1 premium),	£4  "    "
On the 12th day of April. 1897	£3  "    "
On the 12th day of May, 1897	£3  "    "
	£11 per Share.

The SHARES may be paid up in full on allotment or at the date when the first instalment is payable, and the first Dividend on the Shares in September next will be calculated from the dates on which the several payments in respect thereof were made.

Applications for the PREFERENCE SHARES should be made on tbe Form accompanying the Prospectus, and forwarded to the Bankers of the Company, together with the amount payable on application.

The whole of the ORDINARY SHARES and of the DEFERRED SHARES are taken by the Vendors in part payment of the purchase price.

The premium of £1 per Share is not to belong to the Vendors, but to the Company, part of whose General Reserve Fund it is to form.

DIRECTORS.
GEORGE YOUNGER, Brewer, Alloa, Chairman.
THE EARL OF MAR AND KELLIE, Alloa House, Alloa.
JOHN JAMES MOUBRAY of Naemoor, Rumbling Bridge.
JAMES YOUNGER, Brewer, Alloa.

. . . . . .

PROSPECTUS.

This COMPANY has been formed for the purpose of acquiring and carrying on the old and well-establlshed business of GEORGE YOUNGER & SON, Brewers, Alloa.

The business, the trade of which consists in the production of Ales and Stouts for the Home and Export markets, is carried on at Alloa in the Candleriggs and Meadow Breweries, the Craigward Maltings. and the Kelliebank Export Bottling Stores. It was founded about the year 1760 by Mr George Younger, and it has been carried on continuously by his descendants. Since 1875 it has been conducted by Mr George Younger and Mr James Younger, as the sole partners of the firm. The business is believed to be now the largest of the kind in Scotland, outside Edinburgh.

The whole of the brewing operations have been for many years past carried on in the Candleriggs Brewery alone. The principal part of that Brewery, with all the Plant, having been totally destroyed by fire in November, 1889, the opportunity was taken, when rebuilding it in 1893, to introduce many modern improvements, with the result that the Brewery is now one of the best equipped in the country. The new Brew-House is fireproof, and contains a 145 quarter Plant, all new and of the best type, and capable, as it stands, of meeting a largely-increased output. In addition to the Plant found in all well-equipped Breweries, there is a valuable Refrigerating Apparatus for regulating the temperature of the fermenting rooms in warm weather, and there are also two Patent Grain-Drying Machines, with a capacity of 130 quarters per day, which will always ensure the disposal of the Brewery grains. An installation of Patent Pneumatic Malting Plant, with a capacity of 100 quarters per week, was erected two years ago. This has since been in full operation with very satisfactory results. The Meadow Brewery has for a considerable number of years past been used exclusively for Counting- House and Storage purposes. The Wells yield a copious supply of excellent brewing water, far in excess of present requirements. The Craigward Maltings, which have a capacity of 265 quarters per week, are substantial stone buildings, connected by sidings both with the North British and the Caledonian Railways. The Kelliebank Export Bottling Stores stand upon a site extending to 4.5 acres, and are connected by a siding with the Caledonian Railway. The site has a frontage to the River Forth with a private wharf for the use of the works. The Malting premises of the firm have for some years past been inadequate to cope with the demands of a constantly increasing business, and large quantities of malt have in consequence had to be purchased for use in the Brewery. With the view of obviating this inconvenience for the future, the Vendors recently entered into negotiations with the North British Railway Company, as a result of which they have secured by feu a site adjoining that Railway at Alloa, upon which new maltings, of the most approved modern type, and with a capacity of 300 quarters a week, are now in course of erection. These Maltings when completed will, it is believed, be a source of considerable additional profit to the business, and the expenditure thereon, so far as it was not actually paid on the 31st December last, will be defrayed by the Company.

. . . . .

The Banks and Profit and Loss Accounts have been audited for many years by Messrs Moncreiff & Horsbrugh, C A. Edinburgh, who have granted the following Certificate as to the Profits and the Movable Assets :-

46 CASTLE STREET, EDINBURGH, 20th February, 1897.

We hereby certify that we have for the past fifteen years made an annual audit of the Books and Accounts of the business carried on by Messrs George Younger & son. Brewers, Alloa ; that during that period the business has steadily increased; and that in the three years ending 31st December, 1896, the Annual Profits excluding Interest on Capital employed, were as follows:-

For Year ending 3lst December, 1894,     £22,237 3 10
For Year ending 3lst December, 1895,     1,416 15 9
For Year ending 31st December, 1896,     38,173 0 4

The Profits of the above three years have been arrived at by the same methods of book-keeping and statement that were followed in the conduct of the business during the preceding twelve years of our audit, and they have been struck after making ample allowance for discounts, contingencies of realisation, maintenance and depreciation, in addition to the usual charges on the business.

Exclusive of Lands, Buildings, and Fixed Machinery, the Balance-sheet of 31st December, 1886, comprises the following assets :- Customers' Balances, and Cash, Stocks Of Ales. Stouts, Malt, Hops, and other materials, together with Casks and Bottles for the Home and Export Trades, and Plant, Utensils, &c., amounting in all to £160,111 17s 10d. and in our opinion the valuations of these assets are very moderately stated.
MONCREIFF & HORSBRUGH, C.A.
Dundee Courier - Saturday 27 February 1897, page 1.

You can see the same type of construction as at McEwan. The capital of £500,000 was divided into into preference shares, ordinary shares and deferred shares. With the board hanging onto all of the latter two. That's a fair bit of capital for the time. Though, as the prospectus states, it was the largest Scottish brewery outside Edinburgh.

There are details of the brewery, too. A 145 quarter brewhouse equates to an annual output of around 175,000 barrels. In 1897, 2,000,000 barrels of beer were brewed in Scotland. Which means George Younger had the capacity to brew 9% of all Scottish beer. I can easily believe they were the largest outside Edinburgh. And I can't imagine many in Edinburgh were bigger.

With a capacity of 565 quarters per week, the two maltings (after the completion of the new one) produced about enough for 4 days brewing. Which means they must have been close to self-sufficient in terms of malt.

The profits look a bit weird. Why did they earn so much less in 1895? That's the first question I would have asked if I'd been contemplating investing in the company.

The valuation of £160,111 17s 10d (how wonderfully precise) seems an awful lot considering in excludes the brewery premises and fixed machinery. They must have been worth a few quid.