Webster's Brewery

Webster's Brewery (Samuel Webster & Sons Ltd) was a brewery founded in 1838 by Samuel Webster which operated at the Fountain Head Brewery in Halifax, West Yorkshire, England. Webster's Green Label, a light mild, and Yorkshire Bitter gained national distribution after the company was taken over by Watney Mann in 1972. Throughout the 1970s it was known for the advertising slogan: "Drives out the northern thirst".

The brewery was closed with the loss of 400 jobs in 1996. Following its acquisition by Courage Brewery in 1990, Courage moved operations to Berkshire brewery as they bought the brewery to obtain the Budweiser and Holsten pils packaging contracts. After the brewery's closure, Webster's beers were initially brewed at the John Smith's Brewery in Tadcaster before moving to the Thomas Hardy Brewery at Burtonwood in 2004. Silvan Brands have owned the company since 2003 when they acquired it from Scottish & Newcastle.

History Origins: 1838–1900

Samuel Webster (1813–1872) was born in Ovenden, a small village about 2 miles from Halifax town centre. He was the eldest of seven brothers born into a Congregationalist family of the 10 acre-owning farmer James Webster. Webster acquired the small Fountain Head Brewery in Ovenden Wood in 1838 when he was 25 and opened an office in Union Cross Yard, Halifax.The National Archives. The company bought its first public house in 1845. In 1860 he was joined in partnership by his three sons Isaac, George Henry and Samuel Green, and the firm began trading as Samuel Webster & Sons.The Brewing industry: a guide to historical records By Lesley Richmond, Alison Turton, p. 356 Samuel Webster died in 1872, leaving his sons to continue the business. The firm also imported and sold wines and cigars, in addition to its brewing concerns.The National Archives.

By 1880 the company had 100 tied houses. In March 1890 Samuel Webster & Sons became a registered company with £175,000 (£17.5 million in 2010) of capital and Isaac Webster, Samuel's eldest son, its first chairman.COMMERCIAL & MARKETS. Liverpool Mercury etc (Liverpool, England), Monday, 24 March 1890; Issue 13169. In 1892 net profit was £20,000 (£2 million in 2010).COMMERCIAL REPORTS. The Leeds Mercury (Leeds, England), Tuesday, 26 January 1892; Issue 16787. In 1896 the company took over H & T T Ormerod of Brighouse, West Yorkshire which could trace its origins back to 1760.The Brewing industry: a guide to historical records By Lesley Richmond, Alison Turton, p. 357. Isaac Webster died in 1899, leaving an estate of £87,454 (£9 million).Births, Deaths, Marriages and Obituaries. The Morning Post (London, England), Saturday, 17 June 1899; p. 5; Issue 39636. 19th Century British Library Newspapers: Part II. By 1900 the company's office had moved to 57 Northgate, Halifax.

20th-century consolidation The temperance movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, and emergency laws aimed at restricting drinking during the First World War created difficult trading conditions for brewers.‘Lloyd George's Beer' or When It Was Illegal to Buy Your Round . In 1919 net profit was reported at £22,325 (£900,000 at 2010 prices).The Manchester Guardian (1901–1959) [Manchester (UK)] 7 March 1919: 9. Samuel Wentworth Webster, a director of the company and grandson of the founder, died in 1928 with a personalty of £45,000 (£2.2 million in 2010).The Times, 28 August 1928 In 1928, one of the brewery's most successful beers was launched; Webster's Green Label, a light mild ale.Samuel Webster & SonsThe Financial Times (London, England), Monday, 9 April 1956; p. 7; Edition 20,825 (534 words). In 1929 the company's entire stock of properties, land and brewery buildings was valued at £468,833 (£23.2 million in 2010). The company took over Joseph Stocks of Halifax in December 1932, which could trace its origins back to 1790. In 1957, Webster's took over the brewer, John Ainley & Sons Ltd. of Huddersfield and Woodhead Brothers of Elland, near Halifax, a mineral water manufacturer. The company dray horses, used for local beer deliveries, were retired by the end of the 1950s. In 1961 Webster's bought Daniel Fielding & Sons of Halifax, which added 19 public houses to their tied estate.SAMUEL WEBSTER & SONS LTD.: A RECORD TRADING YEAR PLANS FOR INCREASING CAPACITY MR J R G MARCHETTI'S STATEMENT The Guardian (1959–2003) [London (UK)] 8 March 1963: 18. The same year the company sought out partnership with the national brewer Watney Mann in order to benefit from the technical knowledge of the much larger company."Samuel Webster & Sons, Limited". Financial Times 3 March 1961. Retrieved 19 August 2011. In return Webster's brewed and sold the brewery conditioned Watney's Red Barrel ale throughout their tied estate. In 1962, a reciprocal trading agreement was reached with Ind Coope's North East division which saw Webster's houses stock lager for the first time. That same year the group won the contract to bottle Tuborg for West Yorkshire.

In September 1966, a friendly takeover of the Bradford brewers J. Hey & Company Ltd added 73 public houses to their estate.The Times Tuesday, 14 March 1967; p. 16; Issue 56889; col A. Webster's had a market value of £3.3 million, and J. Hey had a value of £1 million.Boardroom news: DECCA'S 'SPLENDID' RESULTS SQUEEZE SHOULD BENEFIT TELEFUSION SCHWEPPES' PROFITS LEAP BY 15 P.C The Guardian (1959–2003) [London (UK)] 14 September 1966: 12. The combined group had assets of over £4.5 million (£65 million in 2010 prices). Webster's continued to bottle Guinness under their Hey & Humphries subsidiary label into the late 1980s. Throughout the 1960s and early 1970s, consolidation, a good product and successful marketing made the company successful, according to The Times, with the social club trade accounted for around half of turnover."Brewery gets taste for new technique Consultancy". The Times, 25 March 1968; p. 22; Issue 57209; col A. By 1967 Watney Mann owned 18.4 per cent of the company, and Webster's had a market capitalisation of £6 million (£85 million in 2010 prices) and owned 320 public houses and 12 off licences."The protectors and the protected." The Economist (London), 2 December 1967. Retrieved 19 August 2011.Investors chronicle and stock exchange gazette, Volume 2, Part 2, 1967, p. 209. Watney Mann had gradually increased their share to 27.1 per cent by 1972 when it initiated a takeover of the rest of the company.The Economist, Volume 225, Issue 3 Samuel Webster & Sons was offered £18 million for the 73 per cent of the company that Watney did not already own.Goodrick-Clarke, A; Wilson, Andrew (11 March 1972). "£359m bid for Watney Mann" The Times; p. 1; Issue 58424; col C. The Watney Mann offer valued the entire company at almost £250 million in 2010 prices.Inflation Calculator. Bank of England. The takeover was a friendly one, and dependent upon the agreement of the Webster family, who owned 20 per cent of the company.Wilson, Andrew (29 February 1972). "Watney takeover puts £24m value on brewery", The Times. p. 17; Issue 58414; col E. Watney Mann was motivated by an increase to their tied estate.The Times Tuesday, 13 January 1970; p. 28; Issue 57766; col A. Following the takeover, Webster's continued as a regional subsidiary of the Watney Mann brewing empire, responsible for Yorkshire, north Lincolnshire, north Derbyshire and north Nottinghamshire.The Guardian (1959–2003) [London (UK)] 21 May 1981: 21. The takeover saw heavy investment in the brewery and the Webster's brands enjoyed increased distribution nationally. That same year, Watney Mann itself was taken over by Grand Metropolitan.

In 1979, Webster's employed a total of 1,500 people across production, distribution and retailing.Management services, Volume 29, 1979. The early 1980s saw the "gradual transformation" of Webster's into a national brand.European Cases in Strategic Management By John Hendry, Tony Eccles, pp. 246–7. In 1985, Grand Met merged the Wilson Brewery of Manchester (which Watney Mann had bought in 1960) with Webster's to form Samuel Webster and Wilsons Ltd. In 1986, Wilsons Brewery was closed down and production of Wilsons Original Bitter and Wilsons Mild was moved to Halifax.Wood, Lisa. "Brewery Closure to Hit 237 Jobs". Financial Times (London) 9 May 1986: Retrieved 19 August 2011. By 1988 Webster's was supplying around 1000 pubs in the North of England, and as far afield as North Wales.

Moving out of the brewing industry, Grand Met sold Webster's to Courage in 1990. By that year Webster's had an annual revenue of around £100 million and claimed 7 per cent of the national bitter market."Webster vies for lager youth", Campaign, 16 November 1990. However Courage owned the higher selling John Smith's ale brand, and Webster's was deprioritised.John Smith's Bitter: Changing the agenda for bitter advertising. The brands suffered further after the Scottish & Newcastle takeover of Courage, as S&N, with their own Theakstons brand, now owned three major bitter brands from Yorkshire alone. By 1996 Scotland on Sunday described the brand as "staid" and argued that it "never caught on outside its Yorkshire heartland."Big beer rolls back the barrel, Scotland on Sunday, 21 January 1996. By this time John Smith's was outselling Webster's three to one.

Following the closure of the Fountain Head Brewery in 1996, Webster's beers were initially brewed at Scottish Courage's John Smith's Brewery in Tadcaster, but were subsequently moved to the Thomas Hardy Brewery at Burtonwood in 2004. Scottish & Newcastle sold the Webster's brands to Silvan Brands in 2003.London Stock Exchange Aggregated Regulatory News Service (ARNS) 19 February 2008 Scot.& Newcastle Final Results.Intellectual Property Office – Results. The chairman Brian Stewart defended the sale, claiming: "Webster's was a brand that did not have a strong brand franchise. What has happened is that brands [which] consumers demand are still here".The Sunday Herald 7 July 2002 McEwan's still best buy says S&N chairman. In 2011, H B Clark took over the distribution rights for the Webster's brands in the north of England."Clark's plans for Webster's"; p. 26, Morning Advertiser, 10 November 2011. The bitter is now simply known as Webster's Bitter.http://www.hbclark.co.uk/brochure/mar-april-12-rewards-plus.pdf In 2015, Silvan Brands Ltd dissolved and the brand is believed no longer to be sold.

Fountain Head Brewery

The brewery site was chosen for its Pennine spring which provided the ready water supply necessary for brewing. The water was rich in magnesium sulphate which added bitterness to the beer and provided it with a dry finish. In 1873 the brewery was extended and redeveloped. In 1890 the brewery was linked to the Halifax High Level Railway network, which facilitated the brewery's distribution.Halifax History Blog > Halifax Town, Calderdale, West Yorkshire . In 1900 the Château-influenced maltings building was built as part of a £10,000 (£1 million in 2010) development project. By 1958 the company's existing offices in Northgate, Halifax, were proving too small for the expanding company, and new offices were custom built on the Ovenden Wood site."Samuel Webster & Sons Ltd." Financial Times (London, England), 8 April 1957; p. 2; Edition 21,133. The landmark maltings building was closed in 1960 as its per annum capacity proved insufficient for the brewery's increasing needs, and the building was used for storage.The Guardian (1959–2003) [London (UK)] 11 August 1960: 13.