The last desperate attempt to save Pattisons

Yes, we're back with Pattisons. Watching the few final twitches of its battered and bloody body.

Some of the creditors refused to let the idea of selling the business as a going concern die. Even after the liquidators had withdrawn their support for the syndicate's bid. Reading the following newspaper report, you might be led to assume that the deal was done and dusted and that the ship of Pattison's would continue plough the oceans.

"PATTISONS, LIMITED.
BUSINESS TO BE TRANSFERRED TO A SYNDICATE.
A meeting of creditors of Pattisons, Limited, Leith. was held at Edinburgh yesterday to consider whether the business should be transferred to a London syndicate or wound up by liquidators.

Mr. Ross, of the Distillers' Company, Limited, presided over a large gathering, and said the syndicate were still willing to lodge money for the purchase. The total sum was stated to be £377,000, less liquidation expenses; and the syndicate were prepared to pay £345,000 in three equal instalments in two, three, and four months. If the scheme were adopted, the creditors should receive one-third of their dividend in five months. £50,000 would be lodged in the bank, and forfeited if the syndicate failed to carry out the scheme. The committee considered the securities adequate, while the bank was to be paid in cash. The committee advised the creditors to accept the offer.

The report, prepared by Mr. Richard Brown, chartered accountant, recommending the acceptance of the syndicate's offer, was then read.

The Chairman moved that the meeting approves generally the proposed sale and transfer of the assets of the company to the syndicate, and that a committee be appointed to conclude the arrangements, if satisfactory to the hereditable creditors, and to adjust a deed of arrangement and submit it to the creditors and court. That, he said, only committed them to a general approval.

Mr Blair, the liquidator's agent, made a statement against the scheme, and considerable discussion followed. An amendment was proposed to delay the decision for three days till further information was obtained, but it was pointed out that to do this would be to wreck the scheme. Ultimately the chairman's motion was adopted unanimously."
Liverpool Mercury - Saturday 27 May 1899, page 5.

As several times before, just when everything looked settled, another problem appeared. This time it was the guarantee of payment from the Ocean Accident and Guarantee Company. Their terms meant that the whole deal needed to be renegotiated. And there just wasn't time.

"PATTISONS, LIMITED.
FAILURE OF NEGOTIATIONS WITH SYNDICATE.
Lord Stormonth Darling, in the Court of Session yesterday, heard parties on a note for William Higgin and others in the liquidation of Pattisons, Limited. The Solicitor-General, who appeared for the petitioning creditors, referred to the report which the chairman of the meeting, held some time ago, had made to his lordship, and read a final report the purport of which was that the Ocean Accident and Guarantee Company had intimated their willingness to find cash to pay off the heritable bonds and to guarantee payment of the second and third instalments of the price, but the conditions on which they were prepared to do so required a readjustment of the terms for the acquisition of the property by the new company. The committee had done their utmost to arrange for this readjustment, but they regretted that they had been unable to bring the negotiations to a close within the time at their disposal. The period for which the liquidators were allowed to carry on the business expired on 3rd June. On 5th June the brewery was again advertised for sale by auction, and the committee were informed by Messrs Davidson and Syme that that had been done by agreement between the liquidators and the British Linen Company, In these circumstances the committee reported that they were not in a position to continue the negotiations. He had no motion to make, because he thought that exhausted the remit to the committee, and practically disposed of the note which the petitioners had presented.

Mr Campbell, for the liquidators, said that go far as he could see, the Solicitor-General had taken the correct view of matters, and the one that he (Mr Campbell) had intended to submit namely, that the note was new exhausted and should be taken out of court.

Mr Salvesen, who appeared for creditors whose claims amounted to £345,145, said he was instructed to attend to oppose any further extension for the carrying out of that scheme. A large body of the creditors had come to be of the opinion that the syndicate were trifling with them, and that they did not mean to go on with the scheme originally proposed.

The Solicitor-General demurred to this statement, and said he hoped he had said nothing to confirm that impression.

Lord Stormonth Darling, after further discussion, allowed the note of the creditors to drop, seeing it was exhausted, and allowed the petitioning creditors their expenses of the petition, of the meeting, and of the report."
Aberdeen Journal - Wednesday 07 June 1899, page 6.

Ultimately negotiations with the syndicate had done nothing but inspire false hope amongst the creditors and cost them money. Because all the time the negotiations continues, Pattisons was trading at a loss. Which makes you wonder how successfully the syndicate could have run the business. Or had their intention all along just been to strip out the company's assets?

I can understand why the creditors felt like the syndicate had just been pissing them around. They kept changing their offer every time it looked like being accepted.

This decision meant the end for Pattisons and the sale of the company's assets by the liquidators. But it wasn't as simple as that. There were still a few twists and turns left in the tale.

The Price of Lager

Nailing together information from different sources is great fun. And can generate fascinating new data. That's why I enjoy doing it so much.

This all started when I stumbled across a wine merchant's price list from 1932. This one:

Cheltenham Chronicle - Saturday 18 June 1932, page 1.

It's like a roll call of Britain's most famous beers of the time. And what did it remind me of? The Whitbread Gravity Book. Because that's full of famous beers from the 1930's. A quick check of my mega gravity spreadsheet confirmed what I suspected: I'd got the gravity of most of the beers.

This where it gets really exciting: working out the relative cost of each. That is, the price per gravity point per dozen pints. The results are intriguing and not quite what I had expected in every case.

Brewery	Place	year	beer	OG	date OG	size	price per dozen (pence)	price per gravity point (pence)
Truman	Burton	1932	Pale Eagle Ale	1038	1932	half pint	48	2.53
Truman	Burton	1932	Pale Eagle Ale	1038	1932	pint	90	2.37
Truman	Burton	1932	Pale Eagle Ale	1038	1932	quart	168	2.21
Flower's	Stratford	1932	Light Bitter Ale	1041	1936	half pint	48	2.34
Flower's	Stratford	1932	Light Bitter Ale	1041	1936	pint	90	2.20
Whitbread	London	1932	Pale Ale	1046.1	1932	half pint	54	2.34
Whitbread	London	1932	Pale Ale	1046.1	1932	pint	96	2.08
Mitchell & Butler	Birmingham	1932	All Bright Ale	1044	1932	pint	102	2.32
George	Bristol	1932	Home Brewed Ale	1055.6	1936	quart	204	1.83
Worthington	Burton	1932	Pale Ale	1055.4	1933	half pint	72	2.60
Worthington	Burton	1932	Pale Ale	1055.4	1933	pint	132	2.38
Bass	Burton	1932	Pale Ale	1054.7	1932	half pint	72	2.63
Bass	Burton	1932	Pale Ale	1054.7	1932	pint	132	2.41
William Younger	Edinburgh	1932	Scotch Ale	1051.5	1932	half pint	78	3.03
Wrexham	Wrexham	1932	Welsh Lager Beer			half pint	72
Tennent	Glasgow	1932	Lager Beer	1043.1	1933	half pint	72	3.34
Tennent	Glasgow	1932	Lager Beer	1043.1	1933	pint	138	3.20
Barclay Perkins	London	1932	Lager Beer	1049.4	1934	half pint	72	2.91
Alloa Brewery	Alloa	1932	Graham's Golden Lager Beer	1044.5	1933	half pint	72	3.24
Whitbread	London	1932	London Stout	1044.3	1932	half pint	66	2.98
Whitbread	London	1932	London Stout	1044.3	1932	pint	114	2.57
Raggett	London	1932	Nourishing Stout	1056.3	1935	half pint	72	2.56
Raggett	London	1932	Nourishing Stout	1056.3	1935	pint	132	2.34
Simmond	Reading	1932	Milk Stout	1049	1933	half pint	72	2.94
Simmond	Reading	1932	Milk Stout	1049	1933	pint	132	2.69
Guinness	Dublin	1932	Extra Stout	1055.2	1933	half pint	66	2.39
Guinness	Dublin	1932	Extra Stout	1055.2	1933	pint	126	2.28
Sources:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001
Whitbread brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers LMA/4453/D/01/098 and LMA/4453/D/01/099
Barclay Perkins brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives document number ACC/2305/1/641
Cheltenham Chronicle - Saturday 18 June 1932, page 1.

Here, for clarity's sake, are just the half pints, sorted in descending order of price:

Brewery	Place	year	beer	OG	date OG	size	price per dozen (pence)	price per gravity point (pence)
Tennent	Glasgow	1932	Lager Beer	1043.1	1933	half pint	72	3.34
Alloa Brewery	Alloa	1932	Graham's Golden Lager Beer	1044.5	1933	half pint	72	3.24
William Younger	Edinburgh	1932	Scotch Ale	1051.5	1932	half pint	78	3.03
Whitbread	London	1932	London Stout	1044.3	1932	half pint	66	2.98
Simmond	Reading	1932	Milk Stout	1049	1933	half pint	72	2.94
Barclay Perkins	London	1932	Lager Beer	1049.4	1934	half pint	72	2.91
Bass	Burton	1932	Pale Ale	1054.7	1932	half pint	72	2.63
Worthington	Burton	1932	Pale Ale	1055.4	1933	half pint	72	2.60
Raggett	London	1932	Nourishing Stout	1056.3	1935	half pint	72	2.56
Truman	Burton	1932	Pale Eagle Ale	1038	1932	half pint	48	2.53
Guinness	Dublin	1932	Extra Stout	1055.2	1933	half pint	66	2.39
Whitbread	London	1932	Pale Ale	1046.1	1932	half pint	54	2.34
Flower's	Stratford	1932	Light Bitter Ale	1041	1936	half pint	48	2.34
Sources:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001
Whitbread brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers LMA/4453/D/01/098 and LMA/4453/D/01/099
Barclay Perkins brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives document number ACC/2305/1/641
Cheltenham Chronicle - Saturday 18 June 1932, page 1.

I wasn't surprised that the two most expensive beers were Lagers. They were marketing as premium beers and priced accordingly. What interested me more was that the top three were all Scottish, with Younger's No. 3 almost as expensive as the Lagers. I guess that must have been marketed as a premium beer, too. Come to think of it, I have come across dozens of adverts for it. (In case you're wondering how I know that the beer in the price list is No. 3, I've another price list where explicitly says Younger's No. 3 and the price is exactly the same. Plus Younger only marketed two beers as Scotch Ale: No. 1 and No. 3. The price is too cheap for it to possibly be No. 1.)

I hadn't expected Stouts to come in at numbers four and five. Especially not those types of Stout. Which brings me to the biggest shock: how relatively cheap Guinness was. Remarkably good value, in fact. I've no explanation. I would have expected it to be dearer than Whitbread's London Stout.

The Burton Pale Ales are nicely grouped together in the middle. I'm not surprised that Bass and Worthington had almost identical gravities and were the same price. I would have expected the weaker Truman Pale Ale to be cheaper.

Getting back to the price of Lager (it is the title, after all), let's see exactly how much more expensive it was in percentage terms. I make Tennent's and Graham's Lagers 27% more expensive than Bass Pale Ale and a whopping 43% more expensive than Whitnbread Pale Ale. If we look at cheaper beers, the difference is even bigger - almost double the price of Whitbread's draught X Ale.

Draught Beers
Brewery	Place	year	beer	OG	date OG	size	price per dozen (pence)	price per gravity point (pence)
Guinness	Dublin	1933	Extra Stout	1054.6	1933	pint	11	2.42
Whitbread	London	1932	Pale Ale	1045.3	1932	pint	8	2.12
Truman	Burton	1932	Pale Ale	1045.5	1932	pint	8	2.11
Flower	Stratford	1935	Pale Ale	1047.2	1935	pint	8	2.03
Whitbread	London	1933	Stout	1047.8	1933	pint	8	2.01
Worthington	Burton	1936	Pale Ale	1046.9	1936	pint	7	1.79
Whitbread	London	1933	X	1034.9	1933	pint	5	1.72
Sources:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001

The moral of all this? Drink Mild not Lager!