When Watney Mann were making deals with Carlsberg in the early 1970s, they were by far the larger brewery of the two. At least in terms of the quantity of beer produced.
The figures are from slightly different dates, Carlsberg being for 1969 and Watney and Bass Charrington from 1976. Even Watney, one of the smallest of the Big Six, produced more than double as much as Carlsberg. Which must have had an impact on the relations between the two. I've included Bass Charrington, the largest of the Big Six, for comparison.
So where did it go wrong for the big UK brewers? They didn't expand internationally. Or at least not as much and not as successfully. Obviously, there wasn't quite the incentive for this as there was for brewers like Carlsberg and Heineken, whose home markets were much smaller.
| Carlsberg vs the Big Six | ||
| hl | barrels | |
| Denmark consumption | 4,830,000 | 2,951,256 |
| Total Carlsberg | 3,571,000 | 2,181,974 |
| Carlsberg exports | 825,000 | 504,096 |
| Carlsberg domestic | 2,746,000 | 1,677,877 |
| % Carlsberg domestic | 56.85% | |
| Bass | 12,831,060 | 7,840,111 |
| Watney | 7,698,636 | 4,704,067 |
| Source: | ||
| Brewers' Guardian, Volume 99, April 1970, page 75. | ||
| “The Brewing Industry, a Guide to Historical Records” by Lesley Hammons & Alison Turton. | ||
Given the relative size of Britain and Denmark, 4.8 million hl of Carlsberg in Denmark must equivocate to about 40 million hl in Britain. I'd guess the situation with Heineken in The Netherlands must have been similar. So these were breweries that were used to dominating a market, in a way that breweries in a country like Belgium or Germany, or Britain, where the market was much more fragmented were not able to do.
ReplyDeleteSo when the time came, and the British Big Six had spent 30 or 40 years selling the market out from under their own feet, Carlsberg and Heineken were able to step in and take over running the show from a British brewing industry that had strained every sinew to build up their duopoly for them. And lovers of traditional British beers have been lamenting ever since.
To be honest the big six by all accounts brewed poor beer with the exception of Bass.
DeleteOscar
By my math, Carlsburg sold 74% of the beer in the danish market. That even blows away Anheuser Bush’s numbers in the US. I think AB had 50% of the market share at their height? I didn’t know Carlsburg was so popular.
ReplyDeleteI'd be awfully curious if anything shows up in these publications from the 1970s why British brewers weren't chasing foreign markets more aggresively.
ReplyDeleteI wonder whether they were hurt by trade wars, or transportation costs, or had run the numbers on profit margins and decided it wasn't worth it compared to trying to grab more of the domestic market. Or some combination of other factors.
By my math, Carlsburg sold 74% of the beer in the danish market. That even blows away Anheuser Bush’s numbers in the US. I think AB had 50% of the market share at their height? I didn’t know Carlsburg was so popular.
ReplyDeleteOscar,
ReplyDeleteit really varied. Bass brewed some good beer: Springfield Bitter, Draught Bass, Highgate Mild and Stones Bitter. But also some real crap: Brew X, Brew XI, XXXX Mild.
Whitbread was incredibly variable, from the excellent - Wethered's, for example - to total shit.
Then there was Tetley. Their Leeds brewery consistently turned out top-quality beer.
Watney mostly wasn't very good, but the beer from Websters was OK.
S & N had some decent ber, too. When you could find it in cask form.
The best Big Six beers were as good as pretty much anything you got from most independent brewers. Some of whose beers - for example, Greenall Whitley - I never liked.
Of course, with cask beer a lot depended on the landlord. And some brewers obviously trained them i handling cask beer better than others.
Thanks should have clarified those bass charington beers which were good. You missed Worthington white shield. Also should have included Tetley and their bitter and mild.
DeleteOscar