Tooth and Co was the major brewer of beer in
New South Wales
)
, nickname =
, image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, es ...
, Australia. The company owned a large brewery on
Broadway
Broadway may refer to:
Theatre
* Broadway Theatre (disambiguation)
* Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
** Broadway (Manhattan), the street
**Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...
in
Sydney from 1835 until 1985, known as the Kent Brewery. It was historically one of Australia's oldest companies, having been established as a partnership in 1835 and listed on the then Sydney Stock Exchange in July 1961. The brand has undergone a revival in 2015.
History
John Tooth emigrated to Australia in the early 1830s, traded for a time as a general merchant, and then in 1835, with his brother-in-law, John Newnham, opened a brewery in Sydney. He named the brewery
Kent Brewery
Tooth and Co was the major brewer of beer in New South Wales, Australia. The company owned a large brewery on Broadway in Sydney from 1835 until 1985, known as the Kent Brewery. It was historically one of Australia's oldest companies, having be ...
. It was incorporated as a company in 1888.
The Tooth family had interests in banking, agriculture and real estate and could afford to support their brewing operations through the turbulent times of the late 19th century, enabling the brewer to become the dominant maker of beer into the 20th century. Tooth's major asset was Kent Brewery, although Tooth had numerous other assets; it owned Blue Bow Cordials (which later produced Blue Bow Lemonade), it acquired the
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 ...
at
Mittagong
Mittagong () is a town located in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales, Australia, in Wingecarribee Shire. The town acts as the gateway to the Southern Highlands when coming from Sydney. Mittagong is situated at an elevation of . The town ...
in 1905, Maltings at Carlton Street, Sydney,
Resch's Limited
Resch's Limited was an Australian brewing company. It was incorporated in July 1906 to manage the brewing interests of German immigrant Edmund Resch, who had owned regional breweries before buying out Sydney brewer Allt's and then building his ...
and their Waverley Brewery in 1929, numerous hotels and considerable land. Tooth owned the New South Wales franchise of
Hungry Jack's
Hungry Jack's Pty Ltd. is an Australian fast food franchise of the Burger King Corporation. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Competitive Foods Australia, a privately held company owned by Jack Cowin. Hungry Jack's owns and operates or sub- ...
, although it failed to exploit the franchise. It also owned the d'Albora Marina. For a short period from 1978 it also owned the
Courage Brewery
Courage Brewery was an English brewery, founded by John Courage in 1787 in London, England.
History
Courage & Co Ltd was started by John Courage at the Anchor Brewhouse in Horsleydown, Bermondsey in 1787. He was a Scottish shipping agent of Fr ...
in Victoria, and a brewery at Tuncester, near
Lismore. For a period it owned
Penfolds Wines
Penfolds is an Australian wine producer that was founded in Adelaide in 1844 by Christopher Rawson Penfold, an English physician who emigrated to Australia, and his wife Mary Penfold. It is one of Australia's oldest wineries, and is currently p ...
, and Penfolds' subsidiary, the Koala Motel Chain. The Tooth family is also famous for building the
Swifts mansion at
Darling Point
Darling Point is a harbourside eastern suburb of Sydney, Australia. It is 4 kilometres east of the Sydney central business district and is part of the local government area of Woollahra Council.
Darling Point is bounded by Sydney Harbour to ...
in Sydney.
Kent Brewery was built on
Blackwattle Creek in 1835. The original Tooth and Co produced many beers, of which only two remain on the market – KB Lager and Kent Old Brown. Kent brewery was substantially damaged by a fire in about 1900. In 1913 Tooth and Co acquired the
Maitland
Maitland is an English and Scottish surname. It arrived in Britain after the Norman conquest of 1066. There are two theories about its source. It is either a nickname reference to "bad temper/disposition" (Old French, ''Maltalent''; Anglo Norm ...
Brewing Company. In 1921, Tooth and Co took over Reschs and their "Waverley" brewery on South Dowling Street in
Redfern. Acquisition was conditional that Tooth would not change the original recipe for Reschs Beer. In 1921 Tooth also acquired a
Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to:
*Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England
*Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England
*Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...
brewery, the Castlemaine Brewery and Wood Brothers Company. Tooth later made an unsuccessful attempt to acquire the
Millers Brewery (owned by coal and shipping magnate RW Miller), located at
Taverner's Hill in Sydney. In 1967, Millers Brewery was sold to rivals,
Tooheys
Tooheys is a brewery in the suburb of Lidcombe, in Sydney, Australia. It produces beers and ciders under the ''Tooheys'' and '' Hahn Brewery'' trademarks, and is part of the Lion beverages group which was acquired by the Japanese Kirin Company ...
.
Tooth was losing business to the takeaway packaged beer market, and established Bottle-Mart, whose original spokesman was the comedian
Spike Milligan
Terence Alan "Spike" Milligan (16 April 1918 – 27 February 2002) was an Irish actor, comedian, writer, musician, poet, and playwright. The son of an English mother and Irish father, he was born in British Colonial India, where he spent his ...
. In 1978, Tooth constructed a brewery at Lismore.
Expansion into Victoria
Tooth relied primarily on the pub industry; however, clubs were becoming increasingly important as a liquor outlet. The clubs were supplied by Courage Brewery in Victoria, which meant that Tooth was losing ground. In 1978, Tooth acquired the Courage Brewery in Victoria, signifying a major move into the
Victorian market.
Logo
The logo and trademark of Tooth and Co was based on the battle standard of two Saxon chiefs,
Hengist
Hengist and Horsa are Germanic brothers said to have led the Angles, Saxons and Jutes in their invasion of Britain in the 5th century. Tradition lists Hengist as the first of the Jutish kings of Kent.
Most modern scholarly consensus now rega ...
(stallion) and
Horsa
Hengist and Horsa are Germanic brothers said to have led the Angles, Saxons and Jutes in their invasion of Britain in the 5th century. Tradition lists Hengist as the first of the Jutish kings of Kent.
Most modern scholarly consensus now rega ...
(horse) who invaded Britain more than 1,400 years ago, landing at
Ebbsfleet in 449 AD. On the crowning of Hengist's son, Eric, as the first King of
Kent
Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
, their standard,
a white horse known as Invicta, became the emblem of Kent. It was adopted in more modern times as the ensign of Kentish Units in the
British Army
The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...
. Kent has always been the principal
hop growing area of the UK, and John Tooth was born in Kent. He made the white horse rampant his company's trademark. In the early 1970s, in an apparent attempt to modernise the image of the company, the symbol was secretly
gelded
A gelding is a castrated male horse or other equine, such as a pony, donkey or a mule. Castration, as well as the elimination of hormonally driven behavior associated with a stallion, allows a male equine to be calmer and better-behaved, makin ...
. The more observant staff of the company noticed the change, and saw it as a portent of things to come. Subsequently, the trademark was changed, with some fanfare, to a stylised horse head, as shown on the label shown above. A more recent annual report (1995) showed both the gelding and a
knight
A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the Gr ...
, located on the corner of a chess board.
Staff facilities and benefits
Tooth offered numerous staff benefits. The company offered a £10 marriage bonus to those employees getting married while in the company's service. Leave was four weeks per year, with 50% loading. Although there was no formal superannuation available, employees retiring from the company "would be provided for" on confidential terms. There was a staff social club coordinated by Kent Brewery. Following restructuring circa 1975, Tooth had a gymnasium (at Kent Brewery), "Wet" canteen (Kent and Waverley breweries) and a (non-technical) reading room/library. The social club also purchased an old fishing boat, sponsored by the company. The social club published a magazine called ''Tooth Topics''.
Employees had a generous ration of beer at morning tea (called the beer break), lunch, afternoon tea and when they clocked off. Some of the trade supervisors were able to float between bars during the day. The brewery had several bars, in addition to which plant operators could tap a leaking cask for their own enjoyment; such a cask was called the ''honeypot.'' Tooth unsuccessfully sought a ruling from the Industrial Relations Commission that the honeypot would be banned. The ruling was that a precedent had been set. Subsequently, an inebriated operator, while travelling home, was hit by a train. Tooth successfully appealed the IRC decision. The honeypot was banned and instead Tooth would issue plastic tokens allowing employees to take home one carton of beer per week for their private enjoyment. That arrangement ended with CUB.
In an apparent contradiction, Tooth would not tolerate drunkenness among its staff. Depending on perceived value to the company, alcoholism could lead either to summary dismissal, or to a drying out period at a clinic.
Decline
Prior to 1974, Tooth relied on a handshake agreement with its interstate rivals that they would not intrude in each other's territories, while Tooth's hotels were '
tied', meaning licensees were bound to market Tooth Beers.
Both of these practices would be outlawed under the
Commonwealth Trade Practices Act
The ''Competition and Consumer Act 2010'' (CCA) is an Act of the Parliament of Australia. Prior to 1 January 2011, it was known as the ''Trade Practices Act 1974'' (TPA). The Act is the legislative vehicle for competition law in Australia, an ...
in 1974. Tooth appointed McKinsey and Company, a management consultant firm, to review its procedures, which was headed by
Fred Hilmer
Frederick George Hilmer AO (born 2 February 1945) is an Australian academic and business figure. He was the president and eighth vice-chancellor of the University of New South Wales, an appointment he held from June 2006 till January 2015. He h ...
, a strong advocate of free competition.
Following the review, Tooth made a number of structural changes; McKinsey generally followed the Harvard school of thought that the company should use external consultants for its non-core activities. Between 1975 and 1980, Tooth made numerous acquisitions, two of which were Wright-Heaton Pty Ltd (a catering firm), and Budge Refrigeration.
In 1975, Tooth reconstructed the brewing facilities at Irving Street, Sydney, which was funded from cash flow. Between 1976 and 1982, Tooth and Co owned Penfolds winery. As indication of the conservative financial status of Tooth, the acquisition was funded by tightening credit terms with the hoteliers from 90 days down to 30 days. (Penfolds was later acquired by
Southcorp Wines
Foster's Group Pty. Ltd. was an Australian beer group with interests in brewing and soft drinks, known for Foster's Lager, now called Carlton & United Breweries since the company was renamed in 2011. Foster's was founded in 1888 in Melbourne, ...
, which was subsequently acquired by the
Foster's Group
Foster's Group Pty. Ltd. was an Australian beer group with interests in brewing and soft drinks, known for Foster's Lager, now called Carlton & United Breweries since the company was renamed in 2011. Foster's was founded in 1888 in Melbourne, ...
.)
Tooth saw the weakness in its financial position, and took some action to avert being a takeover target. It attempted a reverse takeover of
LJ Hooker
LJ Hooker is one of Australia's largest real estate groups, with 600 franchise offices and 6,000 people engaged in residential and commercial property sales and property management. The company was founded in 1928 by Sir Leslie Joseph ...
Ltd, so as to acquire Hooker's expertise in managing the land holdings; the takeover failed.
In 1981, a controlling interest in Tooth and Co was acquired by
David Jones (Properties) Pty Ltd, then a division of the
Adelaide Steamship Company
The Adelaide Steamship Company was an Australian shipping company and later a diversified industrial and logistics conglomerate. It was formed by a group of South Australian businessmen in 1875. Their aim was to control the transport of goods b ...
, known as AdSteam, a corporate raider and asset stripper. Subsequently, AdSteam in 1983 sold the brewing interests to
Carlton & United Breweries
Carlton & United Breweries (CUB) is an Australian brewing company based in Melbourne and owned by Japanese conglomerate Asahi Breweries. Its notable brands include Victoria Bitter, Carlton Draught, Foster's Lager, Great Northern, Resch's, Pu ...
. Subsequently,
Victoria Bitter
Victoria Bitter (VB) is a lager produced by Carlton & United Breweries, a subsidiary of Asahi, in Melbourne, Victoria. It was first and brewed by Thomas Aitken at Victoria Brewery in 1854 and is one of the best selling beers in Australia.
Hi ...
, Fosters, Cascade Light and Stirling Light were then brewed at Kent Brewery. AdSteam's acquisitions were funded by huge borrowings, and the group had high debt levels (
gearing). With the onset of the recession of the early 1990s, interest rates rose.
Under the pressure of its debt, AdSteam was forced to liquidate all tangible assets, although its bankers had agreed to an orderly sale. The disposal started in 1991, and concluded on 24 December 1999 when AdSteam, under its new name of Residual Assco Group Limited, was delisted.
With the disposal of assets, various member companies of the AdSteam group were renamed. David Jones was renamed DJL Ltd prior to the relisting of the department stores as David Jones in 1995. The Adelaide Steamship Company was renamed Residual Assco prior to the listing of AdSteam Marine in 1997. The owners of Dextran, and hence IEL, were now called Residual Assco, DJL and Tooth, and still share the tax liability. Pending the outcome of the taxation ruling, the three companies remain in limbo. The matter continued to grind on in the courts, as in December 2007 IEL were given leave to appeal the
Australian Taxation Office
The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) is an Australian statutory agency and the principal revenue collection body for the Australian Government. The ATO has responsibility for administering the Australian federal taxation system, superannuatio ...
ruling, with the matters being completed by 2010.
Tooth, as a listed company, had to publish an annual report. Each year the three companies (Residual Assco, DJL, and Tooth) went through the formality of an Annual General Meeting. The meeting in regard to the three worthless companies takes about twenty minutes; on the basis of a comparison with three witches huddled over a cauldron, analysts and the press have named the three companies the three ugly sisters.
Tooth and Co was delisted from the
Australian Securities Exchange in 2010, declared a loss in 2012/13 and was deregistered in 2013.
Today
Kent Brewery
In early 2005, CUB closed the massive Kent Brewery, with all CUB beers in NSW now sourced from
Queensland
)
, nickname = Sunshine State
, image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, establishe ...
and Victoria. The brewery site was demolished and is now high-rise units, shopping, green space and offices , with the exception of a heritage chimney and a gate. The gate still bears the trademark of Invicta, the rampant stallion.
Hahn
Staff from the Kent and Waverley breweries founded several small boutique breweries
Dr Charles "Chuck" Hahn, who was production manager at Tooth, founded the
Hahn Brewery
Hahn Brewery is a brewery that was established by Dr Chuck Hahn, Charles Hahn in 1988 at an old factory site in the suburb of Camperdown, New South Wales, Camperdown in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
It was originally a brewer of premium ...
in Pyrmont Bridge Road,
Pyrmont. A syndicate of brewers founded the Pumphouse Brewery in
Darling Harbour. The two fledgling breweries were physically close and shared technology. A third brewery was established at
Old Sydney Town
Old Sydney Town was an Australian open-air museum and theme park which operated from 1975 until 2003 in Somersby on the New South Wales Central Coast. Once a living tribute to the early years of Sydney's colonial settlement in the late 18th a ...
near
Gosford
Gosford is the city and administrative centre of the Central Coast Council local government area in the heart of the Central Coast region, about north of Sydney and about south of Newcastle. The city centre is situated at the northern extr ...
. Hahn was subsequently acquired by
Lion Nathan
Lion is an alcoholic beverage company that operates in Australia and New Zealand, and a subsidiary of Japanese beverage conglomerate Kirin. It produces and markets a range of beer and cider in Australia, and wine in New Zealand and the Unite ...
, and the Pumphouse brewery site has been redeveloped.
Maltings
The Maltings at Carlton Street, Sydney, and at
Mittagong
Mittagong () is a town located in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales, Australia, in Wingecarribee Shire. The town acts as the gateway to the Southern Highlands when coming from Sydney. Mittagong is situated at an elevation of . The town ...
were managed by three brothers Ernest, Clarrie and Arthur Jones. Their father William was also the original manager of the Maltings from 1905 until his death in 1928. The Jones family had a combined service to Tooth and Co of well over 150 years. Mittagong Maltings had a considerable land holding, although much of the land was sold for a peppercorn to an adjacent girls school. Mittagong Maltings had three separate buildings, one destroyed by a fire in 1965. The other two are now abandoned, having closed in 1981.
[Australian Heritage]
Mittagong
Accessed 5 November 2007. The Mittagong Maltings is in a state of disrepair and has been considerably vandalised. Waverley Brewery and the Blue Bow site have been redeveloped as housing.
The Lismore Brewery did commence production, and was intended to cover distribution of regions north of Tooheys'
Grafton brewery. But as soon as production commenced, Tooheys acquired Castlemaine XXXX brewery, so the distribution potential for a brewery at Lismore became locked in. Tooheys and Castlemaine are now part of the Lion Nathan Brewing group.
Museum
Tooth established and maintained a comprehensive brewing museum at its Kent Brewery. The contents of the museum have since been donated to the
Powerhouse Museum
The Powerhouse Museum is the major branch of the Museum of Applied Arts & Sciences (MAAS) in Sydney, the others being the historic Sydney Observatory at Observatory Hill, and the newer Museums Discovery Centre at Castle Hill. Although often de ...
, located in
Harris Street,
Ultimo, where some are now on permanent display.
Beers
*
KB Lager
KB Lager, named after the ' Kent Brewery', was once one of the most popular beers in NSW. It was popularised amongst a younger demographic by the fictional beer-swilling rugby league legend Reg Reagan as his beer of choice.
KB sponsored rugby l ...
– named after the Kent Brewery, once one of the most popular beers in NSW, was produced in small amounts by Carlton & United (CUB) was discontinued everywhere apart from Henson Park, NSW, the home ground of the Newtown Jets Rugby League Football Club until a few years ago when it ceased to be available there are as well. At one time, it was popularised amongst the younger demographic by the fictional beer-swilling
Rugby League
Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 11 ...
Legend
Reg Reagan Reg Reagan is a fictional character created by Australian rugby league player, Matthew Johns. His signature outfit is a false Horseshoe Moustache, A pillow stuffed in his singlet to resemble a beer gut and a shirt displaying his catchphrase "Bring b ...
as his beer of choice. Following campaigning by the on-line group, The Reschs Appreciation Society, CUB resumed making it and it is still available despite it initially meant to be only a limited release.
* Kent Old Brown – a brown ale, different in style from the darker and sweeter
Old Black Ale brewed by Tooheys. Kent Old Brown is only available on tap. It is most common on tap in
Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to:
*Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England
*Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England
*Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...
.
*
Reschs Pilsner – originally brewed by Reschs brewery until it was taken over by Tooth and Co in 1929. It was once a very popular NSW beer, but has never been advertised by Carlton United. It has maintained a level of popularity and is still available in most bottle shops in NSW. Old advertisements depicting Rugby League players from the 1930s to the 1960s, with the
tagline
In entertainment, a tagline (alternatively spelled tag line) is a short text which serves to clarify a thought for, or is designed with a form of, dramatic effect. Many tagline slogans are reiterated phrases associated with an individual, s ...
"Reschs Refreshes", are now considered collectors items. With the current fashion of being "
retro
Retro style is imitative or consciously derivative of lifestyles, trends, or art forms from history, including in music, modes, fashions, or attitudes. In popular culture, the "nostalgia cycle" is typically for the two decades that begin 20–30 ...
" in Australia, Reschs Pilsner has managed to maintain a market share in the younger demographic, and is available throughout Sydney, and other major centres of NSW (e.g. Newcastle, Wollongong). While being brewed in Queensland by CUB, it is sold only in New South Wales. Critics claim that these 'retro' beers from CUB differ only by their labels, and are not true to the original recipes.
* Reschs Draught, the draught version of Reschs Pilsener is readily available on tap in New South Wales (outside the Riverina district).
* Reschs Dinner Ale (DA) – available again unofficially as of 6 April 2022 in cans only when some retailers jumped the gun and made their stocks available early. The re-release followed campaigning by the on-line group, The Reschs Appreciation Society. CUB officially launched it on 12 April 2022. Originally, DA was available in
'longneck' cans and bottles, but there does not appear to be any plan by CUB to release it in bottles again. The brew was often called 'Dirty Annie'. Its supporters considered it to be the finest of Edmond Resch's creations. In 2012, a 1962 bottle of DA was discovered hidden inside a piano, but the owner has yet to open it.
Pub paintings
A feature of Tooth and Co was the sponsorship of large pub paintings in the 1930s and 1940s in NSW.
Walter Jardine (1884–1970), an internationally known commercial artist of the era, was contracted to do a series of ink and water color posters for Tooths. These pub posters sought to advertise beer by associating it with sport, health and cultural sophistication. Tooth and Co owned hundreds of pubs throughout NSW at the time and sought to decorate many with these paintings. Many have now disappeared from the pub walls; they are now highly valued as souvenirs of the era.
See also
*
Australian pub
An Australian pub or hotel is a public house or pub for short, in Australia, and is an establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. They may also provide other services, such as entertainment, meals and ...
*
Beer in Australia
Beer arrived in Australia at the beginning of British colonisation. In 2004 Australia was ranked fourth internationally in per capita beer consumption, at around 110 litres per year;
*
List of breweries in Australia
Beer production in Australia has traditionally been dominated by regional producers. Since the 1980s, there have been a steady stream of takeovers and amalgamations, and now the two major producers (who were once Australian-owned) are Carlton & U ...
Notes
References
{{commons category, Tooth and Co.
Other sources
Powerhouse Museum Brewing and Pubs exhibition ''
The Sydney Morning Herald
''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper ...
''
Australian beer brands
Food and drink companies established in 1835
1835 establishments in Australia