Scottish & Newcastle plc was a brewing company headquartered in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...

, Scotland, which expanded from its home base to become an international business with

beer Beer is one of the oldest and the most widely consumed type of alcoholic drink in the world, and the third most popular drink overall after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of starches, mainly derived from ce ...

volumes growing almost tenfold. The company was listed on the

London Stock Exchange London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St P ...

until it was acquired 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 ...

and Carlsberg in 2008 and its assets split between them. The name Scottish & Newcastle continued to be used for the UK trading operation of Heineken International until 2009, when it was renamed Heineken UK. The former S&N Pub Enterprises leased pub division was rebranded as S&N Pub Company after the takeover. In 2012, it was rebranded again to Star Pubs & Bars, bringing an end to Scottish & Newcastle brand.

History

The company was founded by Grizel Syme who ran her late second husband's brewery: this brewery and those of her sons developed into the firm of William Younger & Co. It merged with McEwan's in 1931 becoming Scottish Brewers. In 1960 it merged again this time with Newcastle Breweries to form Scottish & Newcastle. By 1985, the company had become a regional brewer focused on Scotland and the North of England, ranked number five in the UK and selling around 6 Mhl per annum. By 1995, with the purchase of rival brewing business Courage, S&N had become the UK's leading brewer, producing around 15 Mhl per annum. Its UK brewing division became known as Scottish Courage but this reverted to S&N UK in February 2006. Its Managed Pub division was known as S&N Retail with around 2,500 outlets in the estate. In early 2000, S&N expanded outside the UK via a number of acquisitions in Western Europe, growing sales to over 50 Mhl per annum. By acquiring

Hartwall Hartwall Ltd is a beverage company based in Helsinki, Finland. It was founded in 1836. Its drinks range includes Jaffa, Pommac and Novelle waters. The company also owns the licence for manufacturing and selling PepsiCo's Pepsi, 7 Up and Mounta ...

in 2002, Finland's leading beverage company business, S&N became 50% owners of

Baltic Beverages Holding Baltic Beverages Holding is a brewing company owned by Carlsberg Group. It is a significant operator in the brewing industry in Russia, Ukraine, the Baltic countries and Kazakhstan, most notably holding a stake in Baltika Breweries. History ...

(BBH) encompassing brewing interests in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and the Baltic Countries of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. The remaining 50% of BBH was owned by Carlsberg, which gained full control after the takeover of S&N in 2008. In July 2003, S&N acquired the

Bulmers Bulmers cider is one of a number of brands owned by British cider maker H. P. Bulmer of Hereford. It is one of the biggest selling British bottled cider brands in the UK because it has the highest concentration of apples, with a number of vari ...

cider business, adding the Strongbow, Scrumpy Jack and

Woodpecker Woodpeckers are part of the bird family Picidae, which also includes the piculets, wrynecks, and sapsuckers. Members of this family are found worldwide, except for Australia, New Guinea, New Zealand, Madagascar, and the extreme polar regions. ...

brands to its portfolio, together with the UK's biggest cider mill and orchards in Hereford. In November 2003, S&N sold its remaining pub estate to the

Spirit Group Spirit or spirits may refer to: Liquor and other volatile liquids * Spirits, a.k.a. liquor, distilled alcoholic drinks * Spirit or tincture, an extract of plant or animal material dissolved in ethanol * Volatile (especially flammable) liquids, ...

- retaining a successful tenanted pub management business (S&N Pub Company) with contracts to look after some 2,000 pubs on behalf of banks and other pub companies. In 2004 some radical cost-cutting measures were introduced, particularly within the UK where it was noted by analysts that the cost base was too high. During the year, the Fountain Brewery in Edinburgh was closed, followed some months later by the Tyne Brewery 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 ...

. This was followed in 2005 by the closure of distribution depots at Bow, Chelmsford and Maidstone with the task being integrated into Dagenham Regional Distribution Centre and depots at Hackbridge and Croydon with the remainder of the London Accounts being served by Greenford. The company began to use Transit Points in Chelmsford and Faversham as cheap logistical alternatives to full working depots. Reciprocal acquisitions saw the Caledonian Brewery in

and the Northern Clubs' Federation Brewery in Gateshead added to the business. In February 2005, Scottish & Newcastle and Carlsberg UK finalised a joint venture to carry out Technical Services work in the UK. Service Dispense Equipment Limited (SDEL) was formed from the dispense assets of both businesses. In 2006, S&N entered into a joint venture with the Swiss-based freight company, Kuehne and Nagel to set up a UK drinks distribution company (K+N Drinks Logistics). Some 3,000 S&N employees transferred to the new business. On 17 October 2007,

Heineken International Heineken N.V. () is a Dutch multinational brewing company, founded in 1864 by Gerard Adriaan Heineken in Amsterdam. , Heineken owns over 165 breweries in more than 70 countries. It produces 348 international, regional, local and speciality be ...

and Carlsberg jointly announced that they were considering forming a consortium to bid for, and acquire the total capitalisation of Scottish & Newcastle. No formal offer had been put to S&N at the time. On 25 October, however, Heineken and Carlsberg announced that they had submitted a written proposal to S&N. They invited S&N to discuss a possible offer, the terms as to which they were prepared to proceed included a bid of 720 pence per share. The offer was immediately rejected by the Board of S&N, who believed that it significantly undervalued the worth of the S&N group. On 31 October, S&N announced that it had requested the Danish Courts to begin arbitration proceedings between itself and Carlsberg A/S in relation to the latter's alleged contractual infringements, relating to the joint ownership of Baltic Beverages Holdings (BBH). Carlsberg immediately countered that it believed S&N's claims were "spurious and without merit". A new offer was made public on 15 November 2007 by Carlsberg and Heineken, raising the offer to 750 pence per share. The partners claimed this was "substantially in excess of the standalone independent value of S&N". On 17 January 2008, S&N announced that it was now in formal discussions with the consortium, following a revised proposal to purchase the business for £8.00 per share. On 25 January 2008, following limited due diligence and discussions with S&N, the consortium announced a formal cash offer for the entire S&N business at £8.00 per share. This offer had the full support of the S&N Board and was recommended to shareholders. On 31 March 2008, shareholders approved the £7.8 billion takeover by Heineken and Carlsberg. The acquisition was completed on 29 April 2008 as S&N's shares were

delisted In corporate finance, a listing refers to the company's shares being on the list (or board) of stock that are officially traded on a stock exchange. Some stock exchanges allow shares of a foreign company to be listed and may allow dual listing, su ...

from the

. On 23 November 2009, the company changed its name to Heineken UK Ltd. to reflect the owner's name.

Breweries

Scottish & Newcastle employed 40,000 people in the United Kingdom and mainland Europe, brewing beer at: *The Fountain Brewery,

- closed 2004 *The Tyne Brewery, Newcastle-upon-Tyne - closed 2005 *The Federation Brewery, Gateshead - bought 2004, closed 2010 *T & R Theakston's Brewery, Masham (S&N had a majority holding in this brewery. It is now once again owned by the Theakston family) *

John Smith's Brewery John Smith's Brewery in Tadcaster, North Yorkshire, England, produces beers including John Smith's, the highest selling bitter in the United Kingdom since the mid-1990s. The majority of John Smith's sales are of the nitrogenated Extra Smooth ...

, Tadcaster *The Berkshire Brewery,

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of letters, symbols, etc., especially by sight or touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process involving such areas as word recognition, orthography (spelling ...

(closed April 2010) *The Royal Brewery,

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

*Beamish Brewery, Cork *Crawford Brewery, Cork

Operations

S&N owned or co-owned three of the top ten beers in Europe. * Baltika (stake acquired by Carlsberg) * Foster's (European rights, now owned by Heineken) *

Kronenbourg Kronenbourg Brewery (french: Brasseries Kronenbourg, German: ''Kronenbourg Brauerei'', ) is a brewery founded in 1664 by Geronimus Hatt in the Free Imperial City of Straßburg, Holy Roman Empire (today Strasbourg, France). The name comes from th ...

1664. (now owned by Carlsberg, although S&N UK/Heineken retain UK rights on a 50-year supply contract) In addition to these key brands, its portfolio included other well-known drinks brands (acquirer in brackets): * John Smith's (Heineken) *

Strongbow Cider Strongbow is a dry cider produced by H. P. Bulmer in the United Kingdom since 1960. Strongbow is the world's leading cider with a 15 per cent volume share of the global cider market and a 29 per cent volume share of the UK cider market.Alcoholic ...

in the UK. (Heineken) * Sagres in Portugal (Heineken) * Lapin Kulta in Finland (Heineken) *

Mythos Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narrati ...

in Greece (stake acquired by Carlsberg) *

Maes pils Maes pils is a Belgium, Belgian pilsner, pils brewed by Alken-Maes. The beer was first produced in 1930 for Antwerp's Universal Exposition and called Prima Maezenbier. After Jupiler and Stella Artois, it is the third best-selling pilsner in Belg ...

in Belgium (Heineken) *

Kingfisher Kingfishers are a family, the Alcedinidae, of small to medium-sized, brightly colored birds in the order Coraciiformes. They have a cosmopolitan distribution, with most species found in the tropical regions of Africa, Asia, and Oceania, ...

in India (stake acquired by Heineken) *

Beamish Stout Beamish and Crawford was a brewery and brewing company based in Cork (city), Cork, Ireland, established in 1792 by William Beamish and William Crawford on the site of an existing Porter (beer), porter brewery. In the early 1800s, it was the lar ...

in Ireland (Heineken) * Bulmers Cider in the UK. (Heineken) * Newcastle Brown Ale, heartland in the North East of England. (Heineken) * Grimbergen, a Belgian Abbey beer. (Carlsberg) * McEwan's in Scotland. (Heineken) * Younger's in Edinburgh, Scotland. (Heineken) *

Simonds Simonds may refer to: People *D'Marcus Simonds (born 1997), American basketball player *Gavin Simonds, 1st Viscount Simonds (1881–1971), British judge *George Blackall Simonds (1843–1929), English sculptor *Major General George S. Simonds (1874 ...

of Reading, Berkshire. (Wells & Young) Brands licensed to them included: *Beamish * Courage * Foster's *

* McEwan's * Newcastle Brown Ale * John Smith's *Websters The Hofmeister brand was a 3.2%

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 ...

pale lager Pale lager is a very pale-to- golden-colored lager beer with a well- attenuated body and a varying degree of noble hop bitterness. The brewing process for this beer developed in the mid-19th century, when Gabriel Sedlmayr took pale ale brew ...

produced by Scottish Courage (later Scottish & Newcastle) from the 1980s to 2003. The brand was marketed in the 1980s with a series of advertisements featuring a bear, George, with a shiny, yellow jacket and a

pork pie hat A pork pie hat is one of several different styles of hat that have been popular since the mid-19th century. It features a flat crown that resembles a traditional pork pie. Buster Keaton and the 1920s The pork pie began to appear in Britain ...

. The first batch of the adverts in 1983 were the final directorial work of legendary film director

Orson Welles George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter, known for his innovative work in film, radio and theatre. He is considered to be among the greatest and most influential f ...

. In 2016, the Hofmeister brand returned with a new 5% recipe.

Division of the business between the Carlsberg/Heineken consortium

Heineken acquired: S&N UK;

Beamish and Crawford Beamish and Crawford was a brewery and brewing company based in Cork, Ireland, established in 1792 by William Beamish and William Crawford on the site of an existing porter brewery. In the early 1800s, it was the largest brewery in Ireland. ...

- ROI;

- Finland; Alken Maes - Belgium;

Central de Cervejas Sociedade Central de Cervejas (SCC; full name: SCC – Sociedade Central de Cervejas e Bebidas, S.A.) is a Portuguese brewery, founded in 1934. Its main output is the Sagres brand of beers. The company has been controlled by Heineken since Ap ...

- Portugal; Indian JV with UB; US export business and other venture markets. Carlsberg acquired: Remaining 50% of Baltic Beverages Holdings;

- France;

Mythos (beer) Mythos () is a Greek beer brand created in 1997 and since 2015 produced by the Olympic Brewery, a subsidiary of Carlsberg Group. History In 1992, the Boutari Group purchased the ''Henninger Hellas S.A.'' company, the local Greek distributor of t ...

- Greece; Chongqing joint venture in China; Venture markets:- Switzerland; Africa; Hungary; Luxembourg; Indian Ocean; South and Central America and Asia.

References

External links

Records of Newcastle Breweries, Ltd, 1912-1993
{{DEFAULTSORT:Scottish and Newcastle Breweries in Scotland Companies based in Edinburgh Companies formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange British companies established in 1749 British companies disestablished in 2008 British Royal Warrant holders Scottish brands 1749 establishments in Scotland Food and drink companies of the United Kingdom Defunct breweries of the United Kingdom 2008 disestablishments in Scotland 2008 mergers and acquisitions Food and drink companies established in 1749