This is the story of the radical intervention carried out by the Thatcher administration in response to 1986-89 Monopolies and Mergers Commission inquiry into brewing. It describes the creation of big brewers, the official investigations into what many saw as an uncompetitive structure and the damaging consequences for consumers and licensees.
Imagine a workplace where workers enjoyed a well-paid job for life, one where they could start their day with a pint of stout and a smoke, and enjoy free meals in silver service canteens and restaurants. During their breaks they could explore acres of parkland planted with hundreds of trees and thousands of shrubs. Imagine after work a place where employees could play more than thirty sports, or join one of the theater groups or dozens of other clubs. Imagine a place where at the end of a working life you could enjoy a company pension from a scheme to which you had never contributed a penny. Imagine working in buildings designed by an internationally renowned architect whose brief was to create a building that "would last a century or two." This is no fantasy or utopian vision of work but a description of the working conditions enjoyed by employees at the Guinness brewery established at Park Royal in West London in the mid-1930s. In this book, Tim Strangleman tells the story of the Guinness brewery at Park Royal, showing how the history of one plant tells us a much wider story about changing attitudes and understandings about work and the organization in the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Drawing on extensive oral history interviews with staff and management as well as a wealth of archival and photographic sources, the book shows how progressive ideas of workplace citizenship came into conflict with the pressure to adapt to new expectations about work and its organization. Strangleman illustrates how these changes were experienced by those on the shop floor from the 1960s through to the final closure of the plant in 2005. This book asks striking and important questions about employment and the attachment workers have to their jobs, using the story of one of the UK and Ireland's most beloved brands, Guinness.
Beer is widely defined as the result of the brewing process which has been refined and improved over centuries. Beer is the drink of the masses – it is bought by consumers whose income, wealth, education, and ethnic background vary substantially, something which can be seen by taking a look at the range of customers in any pub, inn, or bar. But why has beer became so pervasive? What are the historical factors which make beer and the brewing industry so prominent? How has the brewing industry developed to become one of the most powerful global generators of output and revenue? This book answers these and other related questions by exploring the history of the beer and brewing industry at a global level. Contributors investigate a number of aspects, such as the role of geographical origin in branding; mergers, acquisitions, and corporate governance (UK, European and US perspectives); national and international political economy; taxation and regulation (including historical and contemporary practice); national and international trade flows and distribution networks; and historical trends in the commercialisation of beer. The chapters in this book were originally published as online articles in Business History.
The production of beer today occurs within a bifurcated industrial structure. There exists a small number of large, global conglomerates supplying huge volumes of a limited range of beers, and a plethora of small and medium breweries producing a diverse range of beers sold under unique brands. Brewing, Beer and Pubs addresses a range of contemporary issues and challenges in this key sector of the global economy, and includes contributions by research specialists from a variety of countries and disciplines. This book includes the marketing and globalization of the brewing industry, beer excise duties and market concentration, and reflections upon developments in brewing and beer consumption across the world in order to explore the wide-reaching influence of this industry. Alongside these global topics more localised themes are presented such as market integration in the Chinese beer and wine markets, beer and brewing in Africa and South America, and turbulence and change in the UK public house industry, which demonstrate how the consumption of beer in pubs and other social environments make the beer industry integral to local communities and regions worldwide.
Given recent media coverage of women’s drinking habits, it is surprising that a topic of such interest has not produced a comprehensive examination. This book provides not just a survey spanning a century of momentous change, but integrates diverse sources with concepts to offer a new understanding of the changing nature of women’s drinking patterns. It challenges traditional assumptions and offers original interpretations about the diverse factors influencing women’s consumption of alcohol, including advertising, moral panics, sexism, legislative initiatives, employment, age, ethnicity, technology, new drinking venues and marketing strategies. What most influenced how women transformed their consumption of alcohol? What beverages did they drink? To what extent did women themselves act as agents of change? These and other questions serve as the basis for analysing women’s drinking patterns from a social and cultural perspective. Close attention is also paid to the image of drinking projected in advertising, the mass media and films.
For the past two centuries, brewing has been a constantly innovative and evolving industry, subject to changes in technology, taste and industrial structure. This ground-breaking book is one of the first to examine the industry from the perspectives of economic and business history. It combines chapters on the major European nations with chapters on the United States and Australia.
The book investigates the competitive opportunities for Canadian and UK businesses in the world economy generally, but more particularly in a bilateral (Canada-UK) and regional bloc (European Union-North American Free Trade Association) setting. Part 1 examines Canadian-UK trade and investment flows and policies. Part 2 presents an empirical investigation of the experiences of a sample of Canadian firms with business interests in the UK and the European Union and, likewise, UK firms with business interests in Canada and the United States.
Contributing to modern day discussions on globalization, this is the first book in English that applies the theories of big business, catch up and state intervention to the Chinese brewing industry.
The Rise of Modern Business compares and analyzes the development of business and business institutions in several countries from the preindustrial era to the present. Paying close attention to connections between business development and political, social, and cultural changes, Blackford addresses both manufacturing and nonmanufacturing firms, small firms as well as big businesses. For this third edition, he updates his study in light of new scholarship, with special attention paid to the structural diversity of business firms and with a timely discussion about the reciprocal relationship between business and the environment. The business history of Germany is extensively updated, and there is entirely new coverage of the business history of China, a country whose growing political and economic prowess on the world stage demands the historical and contextual understanding of business scholars today.
How punter power pulled the humble pint back from the brink, this is the surprising story of a very British consumer revolt! Following a cast of bloody-minded City bankers, hippie microbrewers, style gurus, a Python, and a lot of men in pubs, Brew Britannia tells the story of the campaign to revitalise the nation's beer which became the most successful consumer revolt in British history! Fifty years ago the future of British beer looked as bleak as the weak, sweet, bland and fizzy pints being poured, as colossal combines took over the industry, closing local breweries and putting profit before palate. Yet today the number of breweries is at a post-war high, with over a thousand in operation, membership of The Campaign for Real Ale organisation (CAMRA) exploding in recent years with over 150,000 active members and exciting new developments brewing. In a barn in Somerset, plans are afoot to ferment a beer-cider hybrid with wild yeast that blows on the wind, while in Yorkshire an almost extinct style of 'salt 'n' sour' wheat beer is being resurrected for the 21st century. Whether you drink traditional, CAMRA-approved ‘real ale’ or prefer a super-strong, fruit-infused, barrel-aged Belgian-style ‘saison', this astonishing story from the authors of popular beer blog Boak and Bailey will have you thirsty for more!
