How the Scottish brewing industry disappeared

The title says it all. In an easy to digest table form I'll be showing how the Scottish brewing industry all but disappeared in the space of a few years at the end of the 1950's and beginning of the 1960's.

There were two main motors of rationalisation: Scottish Brewers (later Scottish & Newcastle) and Eddie Taylor's United Breweries (one of the foundation stones of Bass Charrington).  Though eventually all of Britain's Big Six brewers, with the exception of Courage, got a piece of the pie. Whitbread and Watney came late to the table and scraped up the few remaining scraps. And, of course, regional brewer Vaux, who already had considerable trade in Scotland, picked up a surprisingly large share.

As you can see in the table below, most breweries didn't stay open long after purchase. Most closed within a few months.  For those that did continue to brew, it was mostly only a stay of execution. Only three of the breweries in the table remain open: Belhaven, Caledonian and Tennent. Odd that Scottish & Newcastle, with its roots north of the border, should have closed every one of its Scottish breweries.

Given John Calder's long association with both Arrol's and Allsopp (later Ind Coope and Allsopp then Allied Breweries), it's slightly odd that his firm should have ended up in the Bass Charrington camp. Allied themselves missedout on the takeover frenzy, contenting themselves with the Arrol's brewery that they had owned since 1930.

By 1970, only two breweries remained independent: Maclay and Belhaven. The former abandonned brewing in 1999, turning itself into a pub company. The latter eventually fell prey to an English firm, Greene King, in 2005.

How the Scottish brewing industry disappeared
Company	Brewery	Town	Total Capital £	Takeover Company	Date of Takeover	closed	Brewery group
Aitchison	Canongate	Edinburgh	400,000	Hammonds UBs.	1959	1961	Bass Charrington
Aitken	Falkirk	Falkirk	927,000	United Bs.	1960	1966	Bass Charrington
Arrol	Alloa	Alloa		Allsopp	1930	1998	Allied
Ballingall	Park, Pleasance	Dundee	75,000			1964
Bernard	New Edinburgh	Edinburgh	1,075,000	Scottish Bs.	1960	1960	Scottish & Newcastle
Blair	Townhead	Alloa	200,000	G. Younger	1959	1959	Bass Charrington
Calder	Shore	Alloa	525,000	United Bs.	1960	1961 (1921)	Bass Charrington
Campbell, Hope & King	Argyle	Edinburgh	250,000	Whitbread	1967	1970	Whitbread
James Deuchar	Lochside	Montrose		Newcastle Bs.	1956	1956	Scottish & Newcastle
Robert Deuchar	Duddingston	Edinburgh		Newcastle Bs.	1954	1961	Scottish & Newcastle
Drybrough	Edinburgh	Edinburgh	300,000	Watney Mann	1965	1987	Watney
Dudgeon	Belhaven	Dunbar	-
Fowler	Prestonpans	Prestonpans	300,000	United Bs.	1960	1962	Bass Charrington
Gordon & Blair	Craigwell	Edinburgh		Mackay	1954	1953	Watney
Jeffrey	Heriot	Edinburgh	280,000	United Bs.	1960	1992	Bass Charrington
Lorimer & Clark	Caledonian	Edinburgh	100,000	Vaux	1947		Vaux
Mackay	St.Leonard's	Edinburgh	-	Watney Mann	1963	1963	Watney
Maclay	Thistle	Alloa	150,000			1999
Maclachlan	Castle	Edinburgh	600,000	Tennent	1960	1966	Bass Charrington
MacLennan & Urquhart	Dalkeith	Dalkeith	-	Aitchison	1955	1958	Bass Charrington
McEwan	Fountain	Edinburgh	1,000,000	Scottish Bs.	1931	2005	Scottish & Newcastle
Morison	Edinburgh	Edinburgh	-	Scottish Bs.	1960	1960	Scottish & Newcastle
Murray	Craigmillar	Edinburgh	375,000	United Bs.	1960	1963	Bass Charrington
Steel, Coulson	Croft-an-Righ	Edinburgh	140,000	Vaux	1959	1960	Vaux
Tennent	Wellpark	Glasgow	2,250,000	Charrington	1963		Bass Charrington
Wright	Perth	Perth	-	Vaux	1961	1961	Vaux
Young	Ladywell	Musselburgh	30,000	Whitbread	1968	1969	Whitbread
G. Younger	Candleriggs	Alloa	750,000	United Bs.	1960	1963	Bass Charrington
R. Younger	St. Ann's	Edinburgh	580,000	Scottish Bs.	1960	1961	Scottish & Newcastle
W. Younger	Abbey, Holyrood	Edinburgh	1,000,000	Scottish Bs.	1931	1986	Scottish & Newcastle
Usher	Park	Edinburgh	403,000	Vaux	1960	1981	Vaux
Sources:
Brewery Manual 1955, 1960, 1965 (via "A History of the Brewing Industry in Scotland" by Ian Donnachie, 1998, page 240.)
"A Century of British Brewers", Barber, 2005.
Scottish Brewing Archive website

There's one firm in the table that wasn't taken over: Ballingall. They just gave up brewing in 1964, though continued to supply their 7 pubs with beer from Drybrough until finally closing the business in 1968.

The process of rationalisation and closure in Scotland was an extreme, more concentrated form of what happened in England during the 1950's and 1960's. Except in England many independent companies not only survived but later thrived. Who has disappeared? The large brewing groups that were the result of the takeover frenzy. There's a lesson to be learned there.