Fuller's Sold

[Dirty Epic]

Just seen this on the BBC News site that London based brewery Fuller's has been sold to Japan's largest brewer Asahi for £250m.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-46999208

Don't know whether this is a good or bad move for Fuller's whose successful beers like London Pride, Honey Dew, ESB etc. have had a growing following in recent years with the rise of real-ale and microbrew culture amongst beer drinkers. Personally hope it doesn't mean the end of them or beer brewing in Chiswick which could easily happen with this takeover and has happened with Youngs in Wandsworth and many other long gone beer brewers up and down the country. The Fuller's site is in one of the most desirable real estate areas of London after all so not hard to imagine Ashai transferring production elsewhere and the brewery becoming a luxury housing/work/leisure development in the near future.

I know I and a lot of the us on the forum like Fuller's wide variety of popular and special edition beers so it would be tragic if they did leave Chiswick or even disappeared like so many have done.

Let's hope this move is for the best... but I'm cynical about this one.

[Gene Hunt]

It will be very sad news if the Griffin works closes. It's a landmark at Chiswick.

I'll be in the George and Devonshire next weekend hopefully so I'll take a look to see if there's any information regards the Griffin works next door.

Gene.

[Dirty Epic]

It sure would be Gene.

Who knows maybe this deal might secure a interim future for Fuller's and their Griffin Brewery site, certainly more so if someone like InBev etc. had have got their hands on Fuller's. Don't really know a great deal about how Asahi run things - Asahi itself a bit like Cobra/Tiger etc. is a decent if not spectacular beer IMO, but that site would be worth shedloads of £'s to them for redevelopment and Fuller's could easily be relocated to another part of London/or outside of it.

Been in the George and Devonshire for a pint or three and some great chat/banter with you mate and that's a brilliant West London boozer.

[Del Boy]

Its another famous old British business gone to foreign ownership  

Invariably these end up being asset stripped or swallowed up into a bigger corporation and when the time is right they often
disappear. This is exactly what happened to Watney's in the 70's and then its mega brewery at Mortlake went the same way in 2006.
Sad that 175 years of work at Fullers gets flogged to people who can never fully understand it.

Brewing is all but gone on a large scale in London. I would never had thought that all the big breweries would sell up and leave. 
I hope the site stays at Chiswick and Fullers beers are brewed elsewhere on license.


This is a good article that details the closure of London's mega breweries from the 70s on. Sad what happened to Watney's.

Last of London's Million Barrel Breweries

[John Steed]

I hope I am wrong but I fear that this won't be a good thing for fans of Fuller's beers. Production will probably get shifted elsewhere, even if it is another UK site. When Boddington's production ceased at The Strangeways brewery in Manchester and was moved elsewhere the beer never tasted the same again. I know several people who, like myself, used to regularly drink Boddington's but never touch it anymore. I hope the same thing doesn't happen to Fuller's as their range of beers are my absolute favourite at the moment. 



Steed

[Cartman]

Same thing happened to Chester's, another great Manchester beer, the brewery was on Chapel Street, actually in Salford, and was near where I used to work. There was a great old pub next to it called the Tallow Tub and many a happy lunch time was spent in it, and enjoying a couple of pints of Chesters lovely smooth mild. Sadly both brewery and pub are long gone.

There is a great site called Manchester pubs blog spot with loads of stuff about some of Manchesters great old pubs in it. Worth checking out

[Dirty Epic]

Are Hydes and Lees still going strong in Greater Manchester Cartman? I know the Hydes brewery was still around about 15 odd years ago but that whole area around it's been extensively redeveloped in that time so don't know if they're still making their beers there?

True what you say about Boddingtons mate and others have also said it didn't taste the same when it became part of InBev (I think) just turned into another run of the mill bitter sadly.

[Cartman]

Yes, Hydes and Lee's are still going. I went round Hydes brewery a few years ago and it was very interesting, parts of it looked like they hadn't changed since the Victorian era. 

[Dirty Epic]

Nice one Cartman  be a shame if those Manchester/Lancashire breweries disappeared. Wonder if they do tours?