John Smith's Brewery in
Tadcaster,
North Yorkshire
North Yorkshire is the largest ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county (lieutenancy area) in England, covering an area of . Around 40% of the county is covered by National parks of the United Kingdom, national parks, including most of ...
, England, produces beers including John Smith's, the highest selling
bitter
Bitter may refer to:
Common uses
* Resentment, negative emotion or attitude, similar to being jaded, cynical or otherwise negatively affected by experience
* Bitter (taste), one of the five basic tastes
Books
* '' Bitter (novel)'', a 2022 nove ...
in the United Kingdom since the mid-1990s.
The majority of John Smith's sales are of the
nitrogen
Nitrogen is the chemical element with the symbol N and atomic number 7. Nitrogen is a nonmetal and the lightest member of group 15 of the periodic table, often called the pnictogens. It is a common element in the universe, estimated at se ...
ated Extra Smooth product, although a
cask conditioned
Real ale is the name coined by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) for beer that is "brewed from traditional ingredients, matured by secondary fermentation in the container from which it is dispensed, and served without the use of extraneous car ...
variant is available nationally. A stronger variant called Magnet is also available in the North East of England. John Smith's Cask and Magnet are produced under licence by
Cameron's in
Hartlepool.
John Smith acquired the Backhouse & Hartley brewery in 1852. Following a series of acquisitions in the post-
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
period, the company became one of the largest regional brewers in the country, operating over 1,800 licensed premises. The company was taken over by
Courage in 1970 who extended distribution of the brewery's products into the South of England. Courage was acquired by
Scottish & Newcastle
Scottish & Newcastle plc was a brewing company headquartered in Edinburgh, Scotland, which expanded from its home base to become an international business with beer volumes growing almost tenfold.
The company was listed on the London Stock Exc ...
in 1995, and the operations were purchased by
Heineken
Heineken Lager Beer ( nl, Heineken Pilsener), or simply Heineken () is a pale lager beer with 5% alcohol by volume produced by the Dutch brewing company Heineken N.V. Heineken beer is sold in a green bottle with a red star.
History
On 15 Feb ...
in 2008.
John Smith's Extra Smooth and Original are produced at the Tadcaster brewery, as well as a range of Heineken products including
Amstel
The Amstel () is a river in the province of North Holland in the Netherlands. It flows from the Aarkanaal and Drecht in Nieuwveen northwards, passing Uithoorn, Amstelveen, and Ouderkerk aan de Amstel, to the IJ in Amsterdam. Annually, the r ...
and
Kronenbourg 1664
Kronenbourg 1664 is a golden pale lager with an alcohol percentage of 5.5% ABV in continental Europe and 5.0% for the UK market. It was first brewed in 1664 by Canon Brewery in the Alsace region of France by master brewer Geronimus Hatt. It uses ...
. With a 38 million litre capacity, the brewery is one of the largest in the country.
John Smith's became well known for a series of highly successful "No Nonsense"-themed television advertising campaigns, featuring the dour Yorkshireman character "Arkwright" during the 1970s and 1980s (shown only in the
South of England
Southern England, or the South of England, also known as the South, is an area of England consisting of its southernmost part, with cultural, economic and political differences from the Midlands and the North. Officially, the area includes ...
), followed by the comedians
Jack Dee
James Andrew Innes Dee (born 24 September 1961), known professionally as Jack Dee, is an English stand-up comedian, actor, presenter and writer known for his sarcasm, irony and deadpan humour. He wrote and starred in the sitcom ''Lead Balloon'' ...
during the 1990s and
Peter Kay
Peter John Kay (born 2 July 1973) is an English actor, comedy writer and stand-up comedian. He has written, produced and acted in several television and film projects, and has written three books.
Born and brought up in Bolton, Kay studied ...
since 2002. The brand also has an association with
horse racing: it was the principal sponsor of the
Grand National
The Grand National is a National Hunt horse race held annually at Aintree Racecourse in Liverpool, England. First run in 1839, it is a handicap st ...
between 2005 and 2013, the
Northumberland Plate
The Northumberland Plate is a flat handicap horse race in Great Britain open to horses aged three years or older. It is run at Newcastle over a distance of 2 miles and 56 yards (3,270 metres), and ...
from 2003 until 2016, and has sponsored the
John Smith's Cup
The John Smith's Cup (known until 1998 as the Magnet Cup) is a flat handicap horse race in Great Britain open to horses aged three years or older. It is run at York over a distance of 1 mile 2 furl ...
since 1960.
History
Early years
![John-smith](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/25/John-smith.png)
Stephen Hartley began brewing in Tadcaster in 1758.
[ Jane Hartley mortgaged the brewery to David Backhouse and John Hartley in 1845.][ Samuel Smith of ]Leeds
Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popula ...
arranged for his son John
John is a common English name and surname:
* John (given name)
* John (surname)
John may also refer to:
New Testament
Works
* Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John
* First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John
* Secon ...
to enter the business in 1847.[ Jane Hartley died in 1852, and John Smith acquired the business, enlisting his brother William to assist.][ The timing was to prove fortuitous; pale ales were displacing ]porter
Porter may refer to:
Companies
* Porter Airlines, Canadian regional airline based in Toronto
* Porter Chemical Company, a defunct U.S. toy manufacturer of chemistry sets
* Porter Motor Company, defunct U.S. car manufacturer
* H.K. Porter, Inc., ...
as the beer of choice, and Tadcaster's hard water
Hard water is water that has high mineral content (in contrast with "soft water"). Hard water is formed when water percolates through deposits of limestone, chalk or gypsum, which are largely made up of calcium and magnesium carbonates, bicarbo ...
proved to be well-suited for brewing the new style. The prosperity of the 1850s and 1860s, together with the arrival of the railways, realised greater opportunities for brewers, and John Smith employed eight men in his brewing and malting enterprise by 1861.[ ]
The operations became sizeable during the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Smith died in 1879, leaving an estate valued at under £45,000 (around £4.1 million in 2016 adjusted for inflation), and his assets were jointly inherited by his two brothers, William and Samuel Smith, a tanner.[ William purchased Samuel's share of his brother's personal estate, and built a modern brewery in 1883–4 at the cost of £130,000 (£9.7 million in 2013).][ By this time the business employed over 100 people.] William Smith died in 1886, and the firm was inherited in partnership
A partnership is an arrangement where parties, known as business partners, agree to cooperate to advance their mutual interests. The partners in a partnership may be individuals, businesses, interest-based organizations, schools, governments ...
by his two nephews, Henry Herbert Riley (1863 - 1911) and Frank Riley, henceforth known as Riley-Smith under the terms of his will.
The firm expanded throughout the 1880s by creating an agency network, establishing sixteen offices in nearby settlements, and offering free trade discounts on their beer of 20 percent or higher.[ The brewery had an annual output of 150,000 barrels by 1889. In 1889, the company's first scientifically-trained head brewer was appointed, Percy Clinch, son of Charles Clinch of the Eagle Brewery in ]Witney
Witney is a market town on the River Windrush in West Oxfordshire in the county of Oxfordshire, England. It is west of Oxford. The place-name "Witney" is derived from the Old English for "Witta's island". The earliest known record of it is as ...
. In 1892, the partnership became a limited company
In a limited company, the liability of members or subscribers of the company is limited to what they have invested or guaranteed to the company. Limited companies may be limited by shares or by guarantee. In a company limited by shares, the lia ...
called John Smith's Tadcaster Brewery Company Limited, with Henry Herbert Riley-Smith as chairman. In 1899 the company acquired Simpson & Co of Market Weighton
Market Weighton ( ) is a town and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is one of the main market towns in the East Yorkshire Wolds and lies midway between Hull and York, about from either one. According to the 2011 UK cen ...
, with 51 public houses, and converted the brewery into a maltings
A malt house, malt barn, or maltings, is a building where cereal grain is converted into malt by soaking it in water, allowing it to sprout and then drying it to stop further growth. The malt is used in brewing beer, whisky and in certain food ...
.
By the turn of the century the brewery was considered to be one of the best-run in Britain, "a byword for first-class management".[ In 1907, John Marples of ]Sheffield
Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire a ...
, the wines and spirits distributor, was acquired. The company began to bottle its own beer in Tadcaster from 1907. In 1912, the company owned over 250 horses, 41 of which saw service during the First World War. Artificially carbonated
Carbonation is the chemical reaction of carbon dioxide to give carbonates, bicarbonates, and carbonic acid. In chemistry, the term is sometimes used in place of carboxylation, which refers to the formation of carboxylic acids.
In inorganic ch ...
beer was first bottled in 1923. Paired horse drays were phased out by 1929. During and for some time after the World Wars, the Government raised the duty on beer, and forced brewers to lower their beer strength. During this period, substitutes for malted barley had to be used for brewing, including flaked barley, oats and rye.
The last of the company's dray horses was retired in 1947. Horses had delivered beer to all the areas surrounding the brewery, as far afield as Pateley Bridge
Pateley Bridge (known locally as Pateley) is a small market town in Nidderdale in the Borough of Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, it lies on the River Nidd. It is in the Yorkshire Dales an ...
. From 1948 the company exported beer to Belgium where it was bottled and distributed by Tilkens brewery. In 1950 there was a general strike in Belgium, and John Smith's hired two Handley Page Halifax
The Handley Page Halifax is a British Royal Air Force (RAF) four-engined heavy bomber of the Second World War. It was developed by Handley Page to the same specification as the contemporary twin-engine Avro Manchester.
The Halifax has its orig ...
heavy bomber
Heavy bombers are bomber aircraft capable of delivering the largest payload of air-to-ground weaponry (usually bombs) and longest range (takeoff to landing) of their era. Archetypal heavy bombers have therefore usually been among the larges ...
aircraft
An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air. It counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engine ...
to carry 7 ton loads twice-daily of their beers into the country in order to ensure supply. In 1953 the firm became a public company
A public company is a company whose ownership is organized via shares of stock which are intended to be freely traded on a stock exchange or in over-the-counter markets. A public (publicly traded) company can be listed on a stock exchange ( ...
, with fixed asset
A fixed asset, also known as long-lived assets or property, plant and equipment (PP&E), is a term used in accounting for assets and property that may not easily be converted into cash. Fixed assets are different from current assets, such as cash ...
s of around £5 million, 1,000 licensed premises and around 1,100 employees. In 1958, Whitworth, Son & Nephew of Wath-upon-Dearne
Wath upon Dearne (shortened to Wath or often hyphenated) is a town south of the River Dearne in the Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England, north of Rotherham and almost midway between Barnsley and Doncaster. It had a po ...
was acquired with 165 licensed houses, and the brewery was immediately closed down. In 1959 the company began to bottle imported Alken lager
Lager () is beer which has been brewed and conditioned at low temperature. Lagers can be pale, amber, or dark. Pale lager is the most widely consumed and commercially available style of beer. The term "lager" comes from the German for "storag ...
at Tadcaster, in response to growing customer demand. In 1961 the company also began to bottle Carlsberg lager. By 1960 the company had an estate of 909 public houses.
In 1961, John Smith's acquired the Barnsley Brewery Company, adding 250 licensed properties to their growing estate. The company acquired Warwicks & Richardsons of Newark-on-Trent
Newark-on-Trent or Newark () is a market town and civil parish in the Newark and Sherwood district in Nottinghamshire, England. It is on the River Trent, and was historically a major inland port. The A1 road (Great Britain), A1 road bypasses th ...
, with 474 pubs, in 1962. Whilst some product rationalisation took place, popular lines such as Warwicks' Milk Maid Stout were retained. John Smith's closed down all the breweries it acquired, apart from Barnsley, where it invested in the brewery, and added production of John Smith beers to the site, as well as increasing the distribution of Barnsley Bitter. As a result of acquisitions, by 1967 John Smith's was the third largest regional brewer in the country after Courage and Scottish & Newcastle
Scottish & Newcastle plc was a brewing company headquartered in Edinburgh, Scotland, which expanded from its home base to become an international business with beer volumes growing almost tenfold.
The company was listed on the London Stock Exc ...
, with fixed assets of £30 million. Acquisitions diluted the Riley-Smith family stake in the company to around 10 percent.
1970–present: Courage takeover and the growth of John Smith's Bitter
In October 1970, Courage purchased John Smith's in a friendly takeover
In business, a takeover is the purchase of one company (law), company (the ''target'') by another (the ''acquirer'' or ''bidder''). In the UK, the term refers to the acquisition of a public company whose shares are listed on a stock exchange, in ...
which valued the company at £40 million (equivalent to £ million in ). By this time John Smith's owned around 1,800 licensed premises throughout the north of England, and as far south as Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire and parts of Cambridgeshire and Shropshire. The merged company held asset
In financial accounting, an asset is any resource owned or controlled by a business or an economic entity. It is anything (tangible or intangible) that can be used to produce positive economic value. Assets represent value of ownership that can ...
s worth £137 million. By combining Courage's strength in the South of England, and John Smith's in the North, a national brewing company was created. John Smith's bottled Magnet Pale Ale was selected for nationwide distribution across the group, and the takeover facilitated the wider distribution of Courage brands such as Tavern Keg.
The Tadcaster brewery was substantially redeveloped and expanded throughout 1974. Courage closed down the Barnsley brewery in 1976 with the loss of 200 jobs. Barnsley Bitter was replaced by John Smith's bitter. Courage argued that modernisation of the Barnsley site would have required "massive" investment. It was reported in ''The Times'' that landlords were generally indifferent to the change, as the taste profiles of John Smith's bitter and Barnsley bitter were similar.
After successful test marketing from 1974, John Smith's Bitter was distributed in the South of England from 1979 onwards, accompanied by an extensive marketing budget.[''Yorkshire Evening Post'', 10 November 2004 We 'ave it!] As research by Courage indicated that Southern drinkers considered Yorkshire bitter to be superior, the beer was sold there under the name John Smith's Yorkshire Bitter. Sales of the beer doubled in 1981 owing to the increase in free trade outlets in the South stocking the beer.["Yorkshire Double Act Pays off", ''Financial Times'', 29 October 1982, p.19. ''Financial Times. Web''. 19 August 2011.] By 1982 it was the highest selling Courage brand and the highest selling canned bitter in the United Kingdom.
In 1982, the John Smith's brands included Yorkshire Bitter, Magnet Pale Ale, Export Pale, Sweet Stout, Double Brown and Magnet Old. In December 1983, John Smith's Cask (3.8% ABV
Alcohol by volume (abbreviated as ABV, abv, or alc/vol) is a standard measure of how much alcohol (ethanol) is contained in a given volume of an alcoholic beverage (expressed as a volume percent). It is defined as the number of millilitres (mL) o ...
) was re-introduced, seven years after it had been phased out. By June 1985, John Smith's produced of beer annually. In November that year, a new brewhouse was opened, at the cost of £5 million. Production of Foster's lager began in 1987.
In 1993, John Smith's Extra Smooth was launched in cans. It was introduced in kegs in February 1995, and distributed to 10,000 pubs and venues. It is a nitrogen
Nitrogen is the chemical element with the symbol N and atomic number 7. Nitrogen is a nonmetal and the lightest member of group 15 of the periodic table, often called the pnictogens. It is a common element in the universe, estimated at se ...
ated version of the pasteurised beer, which was renamed to John Smith's Original in order to differentiate the two products.
In 2005, Scottish & Newcastle claimed that John Smith's was available in 40,000 outlets across the United Kingdom. In 2007, Scottish & Newcastle moved production of John Smith's Cask from Tadcaster to Burtonwood
Burtonwood is a village in the civil parish of Burtonwood and Westbrook, in the Borough of Warrington, Cheshire, England. Within the boundaries of the historic county of Lancashire, the name Burtonwood is known worldwide as the location of the ...
near Warrington, and production of John Smith's Magnet to Camerons Brewery
Camerons Brewery Ltd is an English brewery established by John William Cameron in Stranton, Hartlepool, County Durham, in 1865. It is the largest independent brewer in the North East of England, with a brewery capacity of 1.5 million hectoli ...
of Hartlepool. In 2008 three limited edition beers were released to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the brewery. In 2010 Heineken discontinued production of cask conditioned John Smith's Magnet, although it remains available in kegs. By 2011, production of John Smith's Cask had moved to Cameron's. As of 2012, John Smith's is the sixth highest selling beer brand in the United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
and the highest selling bitter in the world.[ From February 2013, John Smith's Extra Smooth and Original were reduced from 3.8 to 3.6% ABV.] According to Heineken, the decision was taken in order to bring the product in line with the strength of its major competitors such as Tetley, Boddingtons and Worthington.
Beers
* John Smith's Extra Smooth (3.6% ABV). The highest selling variant, available in kegs and cans. It is nitrogenated and pasteurised.
* John Smith's Original (3.6% ABV). The same as Extra Smooth, but carbonated, rather than nitrogenated.
* John Smith's Cask (3.8% ABV). Available nationwide, but most often found around the brewery's Yorkshire heartland.
* John Smith's Magnet (4% ABV). A keg product, most frequently found around the North East and Yorkshire.
* John Smiths Golden Ale (4% ABV). Available in a can only, a lightly hopped pale ale.
Brewery
The brewery brews 3.8 million hectolitres annually (1.3 million of which is John Smith's beer), and employed around 300 people in 2008. It has two keg lines, two bottle lines and one canning line. It currently brews and packages the ale brands John Smith's Original, John Smith's Extra Smooth and Newcastle Brown Ale
Newcastle Brown Ale is a brown ale, originally brewed in Newcastle upon Tyne, England.
Launched in 1927 by Colonel Jim Porter after three years of development, the 1960 merger of Newcastle Breweries with Scottish Brewers afforded the beer natio ...
, and the lager brands Foster's, Kronenbourg 1664
Kronenbourg 1664 is a golden pale lager with an alcohol percentage of 5.5% ABV in continental Europe and 5.0% for the UK market. It was first brewed in 1664 by Canon Brewery in the Alsace region of France by master brewer Geronimus Hatt. It uses ...
(Kronenbourg is a Carlsberg-owned brand brewed under license by Heineken in the UK), Amstel
The Amstel () is a river in the province of North Holland in the Netherlands. It flows from the Aarkanaal and Drecht in Nieuwveen northwards, passing Uithoorn, Amstelveen, and Ouderkerk aan de Amstel, to the IJ in Amsterdam. Annually, the r ...
and Tiger
The tiger (''Panthera tigris'') is the largest living cat species and a member of the genus ''Panthera''. It is most recognisable for its dark vertical stripes on orange fur with a white underside. An apex predator, it primarily preys on ...
.
Slate Yorkshire Square
Beer is produced through steeping a sugar source (commonly Malted cereal grains) in water and then fermenting with yeast. Brewing has taken place since around the 6th millennium BC, and archeological evidence suggests that this technique was ...
brewing vessels were used at the brewery from 1913 until 1975. Stainless steel Yorkshire Squares were in use by at least 1953, but were removed in the 1980s, and the brewery now uses conical tanks. By 1953, the brewery site occupied 20 acres.
Wooden casks were still in use in the 1960s. The cask beer line was removed in 1976, but restored in 1984. A new canning line and a new brewhouse were installed around 1982.
In 1984 the original brewhouse was converted into a brewery museum. In November 1985 a new £5 million brewhouse opened. Production of Foster's Lager began in 1987.[ By 1989 the brewery had a production capacity of 1.2 million barrels per annum. ]Scottish & Newcastle
Scottish & Newcastle plc was a brewing company headquartered in Edinburgh, Scotland, which expanded from its home base to become an international business with beer volumes growing almost tenfold.
The company was listed on the London Stock Exc ...
used the John Smith's Brewery to brew many of its ale brands. In 2004, a new £24 million bottling facility was opened in 2004, described as the most modern bottling facility in Europe.[Scottish Courage gets new bottling factory]
Advertising
The Magnet trademark was first registered in September 1908 in Brussels
Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
, and symbolised strength.
The company's association with television advertising began in 1971 with the "Yorkshiremen love it" campaign.
An early campaign used a series of parodies of Jona Lewie
Jona Lewie (born John Lewis, 14 March 1947) is an English singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, best known for his 1980 UK hits "You'll Always Find Me in the Kitchen at Parties" and " Stop the Cavalry".
Career
Lewie was born on 14 March ...
's " Stop the Cavalry" generally extolling "yer mate called Smith."
This was followed by the "Big John" campaign, which ran in the North of England from 1981, and centred around a re-writing of the Big Bad John
"Big Bad John" is a country song originally performed by Jimmy Dean, who wrote and composed it. It was released in September 1961 and by the beginning of November it had gone to number 1 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. It won Dean the 1962 Gr ...
country music
Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...
staple.["Selling pitches." ''The Economist'', 20 November 1982, p.56. The Economist Historical Archive. Web. 17 May 2012.] Courage was able to demonstrate to an independent panel that the £300,000 campaign had resulted in a £5 million sales increase in the North.
From 1979 to 1986 Gordon Rollings
Gordon Charles Rollings (17 April 1926 – 7 June 1985) was an English actor who mainly appeared on television, but also appeared on-stage and in feature films. He was born in Batley, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England in 1926 and start ...
played the dour Yorkshireman Arkwright in a campaign that was only used in the South. The campaign won a large number of advertising industry awards, and was featured on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
''The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson'' was an American late-night talk show hosted by Johnny Carson on NBC, the third iteration of the ''Tonight Show'' franchise. The show debuted on October 1, 1962, and aired its final episode on May 22, ...
. After Rollings died in 1986 the campaign was continued with Arkwright's successor, Barraclough, until 1991. Despite its success, the campaign was not without detractors, with Deyan Sudjic
Deyan Sudjic (born 6 September 1952) is a British writer and broadcaster, specialising in the fields of design and architecture. He was formerly the director of the Design Museum, London.LSE"Advisory board" retrieved 17 May 2013
Life and caree ...
describing it in ''The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...
'' as a "spurious ... tripe-and-whippets campaign".
No Nonsense campaigns
From 1992 until 1997, comedian Jack Dee
James Andrew Innes Dee (born 24 September 1961), known professionally as Jack Dee, is an English stand-up comedian, actor, presenter and writer known for his sarcasm, irony and deadpan humour. He wrote and starred in the sitcom ''Lead Balloon'' ...
starred in the "No Nonsense" campaign, created by DDB. The Dee campaign was widely credited with helping John Smith's rise from sixteenth to fourth highest selling beer in the UK as sales increased by 65 percent, and the brand overtook Tetley's as the highest selling ale brand in the world by 1995. The Dee campaign won fifty advertising awards, and helped to turn the rising comedian into a household name.
Dee resigned in 1997, and he was replaced in 1998 with a cardboard cut-out known as the "No Nonsense Man", from the GGT advertising agency. Despite appearing in over 20,000 pubs, clubs and shops, No Nonsense Man was found to have less of an impact than the Dee advertisements.
Peter Kay
Peter John Kay (born 2 July 1973) is an English actor, comedy writer and stand-up comedian. He has written, produced and acted in several television and film projects, and has written three books.
Born and brought up in Bolton, Kay studied ...
represented the brand from 2002 to 2005 and again in 2010–11.[Images of strategy By Stephen Cummings, p69] The Kay campaign was described as an "advertising phenomenon", and introduced the phrase "Ave it!" into the public consciousness. Between 2002 and 2004 the Kay advertisements won over fifty advertising and marketing awards, making it the sixth most awarded advertising campaign in the world. Despite the success of the Kay campaign, the perceived " laddishness" of the advertisements were criticised by rival brewer Interbrew
Interbrew is subsidiary of Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV is based in Breda, Netherlands. It has one subsidiary, Ambev S.A. of São Paulo, Brazil.
Brands
Interbrew brands have historically included Budweiser, Stella Artois, Boddingtons, Beck's, S ...
as hindering sales of beer among women.
Sponsorship
John Smith's is a major sponsor of horse racing in the United Kingdom. It has sponsored the Northumberland Plate
The Northumberland Plate is a flat handicap horse race in Great Britain open to horses aged three years or older. It is run at Newcastle over a distance of 2 miles and 56 yards (3,270 metres), and ...
since 2003, and more than 90 "No Nonsense" race days are held throughout the year at 28 jump and flat racecourses across the UK. The brand has sponsored the John Smith's Cup
The John Smith's Cup (known until 1998 as the Magnet Cup) is a flat handicap horse race in Great Britain open to horses aged three years or older. It is run at York over a distance of 1 mile 2 furl ...
(originally the Magnet Cup until 1998) at York since 1960, which is the longest running sponsorship in flat racing
Horse racing is an equestrian performance sport, typically involving two or more horses ridden by jockeys (or sometimes driven without riders) over a set distance for competition. It is one of the most ancient of all sports, as its basic pr ...
in the world. John Smith's previously sponsored the Grand National
The Grand National is a National Hunt horse race held annually at Aintree Racecourse in Liverpool, England. First run in 1839, it is a handicap st ...
between 2005 and 2013.
In August 2012 John Smith's announced a five-year sponsorship of the Kirklees Stadium
Kirklees Stadium (currently known due to sponsorship as the John Smith's Stadium) is a multi-use stadium in Huddersfield in West Yorkshire, England. Since 1994, it has been the home ground of football club Huddersfield Town and rugby league ...
in Huddersfield
Huddersfield is a market town in the Kirklees district in West Yorkshire, England. It is the administrative centre and largest settlement in the Kirklees district. The town is in the foothills of the Pennines. The River Holme's confluence into ...
, home to football team Huddersfield Town
Huddersfield Town Association Football Club is a professional football club based in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . The team have played home games at the Kirklees Stadium since moving from Leeds Road in 1994. Th ...
and rugby league team Huddersfield Giants
Huddersfield Giants are an English professional rugby league club from Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, the birthplace of rugby league, who play in the Super League competition. They play their home games at the John Smiths Stadium which is sha ...
, which was renamed "John Smith's Stadium". In December 2016, this deal was extended for a further five years.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Smiths, John
Breweries in Yorkshire
Heineken brands
Companies based in Selby
British companies established in 1852
Food and drink companies established in 1852
1852 establishments in England
Tadcaster