De Vere is a
hotel
A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a ref ...
s and
leisure
Leisure has often been defined as a quality of experience or as free time. Free time is time spent away from business, work, job hunting, domestic chores, and education, as well as necessary activities such as eating and sleeping. Leis ...
business, which until the late 1990s was a
brewing
Brewing is the production of beer by steeping a starch source (commonly cereal grains, the most popular of which is barley) in water and fermenting the resulting sweet liquid with yeast. It may be done in a brewery by a commercial brewer, ...
company known as Greenall's. It used to be 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 Pa ...
and was once a constituent of the
FTSE 100 Index
The Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 Index, also called the FTSE 100 Index, FTSE 100, FTSE, or, informally, the "Footsie" , is a share index of the 100 companies listed on the London Stock Exchange with (in principle) the highest mar ...
.
History
Greenall's Brewery was founded by Thomas Greenall in 1762. Initially based in
St Helens, the company established a second brewery at
Wilderspool, south of
Warrington
Warrington () is a town and unparished area in the Borough of Warrington, borough of the same name in the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England, on the banks of the River Mersey. It is east of Liverpool, and west of Manchester. The populati ...
in 1787.
It bought the Groves & Whitnall Brewery in
Salford
Salford () is a city and the largest settlement in the City of Salford metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. In 2011, Salford had a population of 103,886. It is also the second and only other city in the metropolitan county afte ...
in 1961, Shipstone's Brewery in
Nottingham
Nottingham ( , locally ) is a city and unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east of Sheffield and north-east of Birmingham. Nottingham has links to the legend of Robi ...
in 1978 and Davenport's Brewery in
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the We ...
in 1986.
For much of the 20th century, the company traded as Greenall Whitley & Co Limited.
[ The St Helens brewery was demolished in the 1970s to make way for a new shopping centre. The Warrington brewery on the edge of Stockton Heath was bought by ]Bruntwood
Bruntwood is a family-owned property company offering office space, serviced offices, retail space and virtual offices in the north of England and Birmingham in the United Kingdom. They own several high-profile buildings in the Manchester area, as ...
, renamed Wilderspool Business Park and is now let to office occupiers.
The company ceased brewing in 1991 to concentrate on running pub
A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...
s and hotel
A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a ref ...
s.
In 1999, the tenanted wing of the Greenall's operation was sold to the Japanese bank, Nomura for £370 million and the main Greenall's operation, involving 770 pubs and 69 budget lodges, was sold to Scottish and Newcastle for £1.1billion.[Greenalls pubs go Scottish]
BBC News, 14 September 1999 Greenalls started to focus its resources on its De Vere and Village Leisure hotel branding at that time.[
In February 2005, Greenalls sold ]The Belfry
The Belfry is a golf resort and hotel in Wishaw, Warwickshire, close to Sutton Coldfield, England, located approximately 8 miles from the centre of Birmingham. It was acquired by KSL Capital Partners in August 2012.
The resort has three golf ...
to The Quinn Group for £186 million.
The Greenall family connection remained as Lord Daresbury, the descendant of the original founder, remained the non-executive chairman. This tie was severed in 2006 when Daresbury stepped down from the post and much of the family's interest was sold.
In 2006, the business, by then known as De Vere Group, was acquired by The Alternative Hotels Group plc, a joint venture between HBOS
HBOS plc was a banking and insurance company in the United Kingdom, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Lloyds Banking Group, having been taken over in January 2009. It was the holding company for Bank of Scotland plc, which operated the Ba ...
and eight investors led by Richard Balfour-Lynn, for £745.5 million. The Alternative Hotels Group plc renamed itself De Vere Group in 2010.
De Vere Group sold Greenall's Gin Greenall's Gin is a brand of gin that dates back to 1761, and which is distilled by the distillers G&J Distillers, formerly G&J Greenall’s, in Warrington, Cheshire, England. Originally founded by Thomas Dakin, the distillers are now part of the Q ...
for £7 million in a private equity-backed management buyout
A management buyout (MBO) is a form of acquisition in which a company's existing managers acquire a large part, or all, of the company, whether from a parent company or individual. Management-, and/or leveraged buyout became noted phenomena of ...
in 2011. Balfour-Lynn also stood down as chief executive in 2011.[Balfour-Lynn steps down from De Vere Group]
Caterer Search, 19 September 2011
In March 2014, private equity firm Starwood Capital Group
Starwood Capital Group is an investment firm headquartered in Miami Beach, Florida. It is managed by Barry Sternlicht. It was co-founded by Sternlicht and Robert Faith in 1991. In 1993, Faith left Starwood to found Greystar Real Estate Partn ...
acquired the business, by then known as De Vere Venues, and integrated it into Principal Hayley Group
Principal Hotel Company is a British hotel and conference venue operator headquartered in Harrogate, England.
History
Principal Hotel Company advertises that it was established in 1898, as that is the year the oldest hotel in its chain, Kimpton F ...
which it already owned.
In November 2014, Village Urban Resorts were sold to Denver-based private equity firm KSL Capital Partners KSL Capital Partners is a Private-equity firm based in Denver, Colorado specializing in travel and leisure investments. Many of the investments have involved Colorado ski resorts.
Since its founding in 2005, the firm has raised more than $13 bill ...
for £485m.
In November 2016, Principal Hayley Group went through a major rebranding and re-investment project; the group became known as the Principal Hotel Company
Principal Hotel Company is a British hotel and conference venue operator headquartered in Harrogate, England.
History
Principal Hotel Company advertises that it was established in 1898, as that is the year the oldest hotel in its chain, Kimpton F ...
and split their portfolio between two groups of hotels: De Vere (a group of modern country estate hotels) and Principal (a group of luxury city hotels).
Operations
Greenall's ales are distributed by Carlsberg Carlsberg may refer to:
Places
* Carlsberg (district), a district in Copenhagen, Denmark
** Carlsberg station, its train station
* Carlsberg, Germany, a municipality in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany
* Carlsberg Fjord, Greenland Other uses
* Carlsbe ...
and brewed for them by Molson Coors
The Molson Coors Beverage Company is an American-Canadian multinational drink and brewing company incorporated under Delaware General Corporation Law and headquartered in Golden, Colorado and Montreal, Quebec.
Molson Coors was formed in 2005 t ...
in 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
Warrington () is a town and unparished area in the Borough of Warrington, borough of the same name in the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England, on the banks of the River Mersey. It is east of Liverpool, and west of Manchester. The populati ...
. Greenall's ales can still be bought in some pubs in the North West of England, although they are gradually disappearing. Often, only Greenall's Mild can be found. Greenall's Bitter is 3.6% ABV.[Draught Portfolio]
/ref> Greenall's Mild is 3.1%.[
]
References
{{Authority control
Defunct breweries of the United Kingdom
Companies established in 1762
Companies based in London
Hotel and leisure companies of the United Kingdom
Greenall family