The Caskaway

Prior to 1989 three quarters of the beer produced in the UK and over half of the 60000 pubs was controlled by just six companies, Bass, Courage, Allied-Tetley, Grand Metropolitan, Scottish & Newcastle, and Whitbread. This led to complaints about pricing, the quality of beer being served, and the regional dominance where the majority of the pubs in one location were be owned by one company. Following a review by the Competition Commission two pieces of legislation went through parliament that made a number of changes restricting the number of tied pubs a brewer could control, and freeing tenants ups to offer at least one guest ale from another supplier.

These resulting changes saw the sale of thousands of pubs often to city financed pubco’s like Punch Taverns and Enterprise Inns. Whitbread alone got rid of over two and a half thousand pubs. Unfortunately, the pubco’s often had more restrictive ties than the original brewery owners and higher rents to offset the huge borrowing costs required to purchase the pubs in the first place. It also set in motion the consolidation of the UK’s large scale brewing in even fewer hands. More positively the ability for landlords to offer more choice supported the growth of smaller cask and craft brewers and the resulting growth in the number and styles of beers available to the consumer. The Beer Orders were eventually revoked in January 2003.