The Lemon Fool

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-46999208
Fuller's, the brewer whose beers include London Pride, is to sell its entire drinks business to Japan's biggest brewer Asahi.

The £250m deal also includes cider and soft drinks brand Cornish Orchards, and craft cask brewer Dark Star.


Fuller's said the deal would preserve the Griffin Brewery in Chiswick, west London, where beer has been brewed since 1654.

Fow how long? Asahi's accountants look at property prices in Chiswick and decide that brewing on prime real estate is not an efficient use of assets - move brewing out to Carlsberg Northampton and Griffin Brewery becomes luxury flats...
(remember Brakspear and Morland?))

Agree re Chiswick.

Also pound down, foreigners buy in on the cheap.

So, I'll go to a Fullers pub, and it'll have London Pride on tap...but it won't be made by Fullers. Wonder if the pubs got Pride at market rates of other beers, or whether the brewery was subsidising the Pubs/hotel profits. Ho hum. I had them more or less lumped in with the mega brewers anyway.

It is saddening to see Fuller's emulating Young's and exiting its historic brewing business to focus on pubs and hotels. However, I can understand it given that the pubs and hotels now generate almost 90% of the company's operating profit, according to the RNS statement.

https://www.investegate.co.uk/fuller-sm ... 1534PB99D/

I wonder whether I've downed more Fuller's or Asahi... I certainly enjoy Fuller's beer more of the two. Asahi to me is a mega-brewery of mostly pretty unremarkable beers. A couple of reasons perhaps 1) Beer is a relatively new introduction to the country 2) The staple cereal is rice i/o barley/wheat, and rice beer tends to be lighter and far smoother. 3)Japanese in common with most East Asians have 'the bitter gene'*. [Including my wife who relishes say a heavy Trappist Tripel, but is repelled by a simple IPA, never mind contemporary hipster 'hop bombs' in the same way many a young child is to sprouts ]

But the beer-scene is changing in Japan [JP], you could make parallel's with the same happening in the US. Though with JP land prices off the scale, opening a brewery, even a small/craft one is far less tenable, though there are exeptions. Keep an eye out for Kiuchi Brewery's range of beers, the Hitachino Nest [ie Owl's Nest] sub-group can be found in the UK, and although far from cheap they're world class. *2
I believe the Brit and Japanese cultures are more similar than distance and appearances might suggest. Both island nations, with deep histories and cultures, both trading with the world. But a difference is that the JPnese are not renowned as great inventors, whereas they can borrow ideas from others and take them to new heights, from the 'Walkman' and microchip, through low cost reliable cars (esp in the 1970s).

They also have deep respect for history, authenticity and inherent quality. That might sound odd to Brit ears since most of us do too, but the point is it's not something shared with the majority of Asia (and elsewhere?); where price comes first and second and quality some way after [x-ref for example Tiger and Anchor beers in Singapore/SE Asia, which make US Budweiser a relative dazzling beacon of a tasting experience ].

So although it's a shame to see things we consider heritage sold off to foreigners, I have faith the JPs will have profound respect not to mess up the company and it's beers. And given the deep pockets of Asahi, they should have plenty to invest.

*'Genetic Variation in the TAS2R38 Bitter Taste Receptor' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TAS2R38
*2 https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/697/
https://hitachino.cc/en/

DiamondEcho wrote: the beer-scene is changing in Japan

The last time I was there I noticed craft beer was becoming popular. I came across specialist bars in Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto. You could also buy it in some convenience shops. Although in most cases it was significantly more expensive than the normal Kirin/Asahi/Sapporo products.

The cost of real estate may be a factor, as you indicate, although isn't that part of why a lot of the beer is brewed in Hokkaido?

DiamondEcho wrote:So although it's a shame to see things we consider heritage sold off to foreigners, I have faith the JPs will have profound respect not to mess up the company and it's beers.

Slightly off at a tangent here, but one of our local town breweries, Ushers, sold itself lock, stock and ballpoint pen to Kim Jong Un, who dismantled the Trowbridge brewery piece by piece, and who now runs it as the state brewery of North Korea.

My wife used to know old mother Usher, who had inherited the family business ,and who had known more than most people about how to turn out a nice pint of bitter. I don't know what she'd have made of Taedonggang, which I gather is more like lager, but I doubt that Pyongyang would know (or notice) the difference?

https://www.independent.co.uk/life-styl ... 68051.html

I can confirm the Indie's story about how the North Korean engineers stripped the Ushers brewery building down to the last nut, bolt and toilet seat, before shipping it all off back to the socialist workers' paradise. By chance, I recently found myself chatting to a lady who had been the chief accountant at the old brewery, and she confirmed that every envelope and every single paperclip had been grabbed, cooed and generally marvelled at, and then sealed in plastic bags and sent back to the Dear Leader. I expect he's still got them on his desk.

BJ

Lootman wrote:The last time I was there I noticed craft beer was becoming popular. I came across specialist bars in Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto. You could also buy it in some convenience shops. Although in most cases it was significantly more expensive than the normal Kirin/Asahi/Sapporo products.
The cost of real estate may be a factor, as you indicate, although isn't that part of why a lot of the beer is brewed in Hokkaido?

This might interest you. https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2037_beer.html It seems Sapporo opening in Hokkaido was a government regional development initiative in 1876! Beer seems to have been a Dutch import, and hence previously focused around the southern trading ports.

The range available is certainly wider there now that when I lived there in the early 90s and the mega-brewery range that could be bought from vending machines on just about every street corner were the bulk of what you could find anywhere. But around that time they started introducing seasonal winter beers, and slightly more niche stuff. If Hitachino Nest existed back then, I certainly never saw it! Last time I visited say 5 years ago the offering was definitely broader and more interesting. I wondered around my old night-time stamping ground of Roppongi in Tokyo and stood blinking when by chance I came upon a Brewdog pub! https://www.brewdog.com/bars/global/roppongi/

BJ What a story...

bungeejumper wrote:Slightly off at a tangent here, but one of our local town breweries, Ushers, sold itself lock, stock and ballpoint pen to Kim Jong Un, who dismantled the Trowbridge brewery piece by piece, ...

Interesting, I had no idea the Ushers Brewery had been sold. Although your article does suggest it was sold to il not un.

And only slightly off-thread: Ocado has Fullers 1845 back on offer at 4 for £6.

Holy schmoley Stu! I got through my previous stash of 50+ pints I'd bought at that previous offer price, I'll look to be stocking up again. 1845 is one of my epic-rated all time favs! [Now how to swing this past my wife, given 48 other beers were delivered just yesterday, 'Enough to last me months' I'd told her... ]

Picked up a bottle of 1845 from local (Calcot) Sainsburys last night, as I've never tried it.
£1-70/btl (500ml) which is pretty reasonable

AleisterCrowley wrote:Picked up a bottle of 1845 from local (Calcot) Sainsburys last night, as I've never tried it.
£1-70/btl (500ml) which is pretty reasonable

If you buy it from the brewery it's £2.10/bottle, and even at that price I consider it a bargain, considering it's quality and ABV%. Aka plenty of faaar worse beers cost more than that. So at 4/£6 I'll be stocking up again. p.s. Last time it was on offer at this price I wasn't the only one wise to it, so my advice is buy it when you see it, as every other time I visited the branch their stock was out.

Anybody know when the distribution of proceeds from the sale to Asahi is likely to take place?

Also, 4 for £6 on 1845 is back on Ocado (a hit on the above posting is what brought me to this thread).

djbenedict wrote:Anybody know when the distribution of proceeds from the sale to Asahi is likely to take place?

I’ve seen nothing since my post over here:

viewtopic.php?p=213973#p213973

That might be the best place to keep an eye on.

djbenedict wrote:Anybody know when the distribution of proceeds from the sale to Asahi is likely to take place?

I should have added As previously announced, Fuller, Smith & Turner P.L.C. will issue its full year results for the 52 weeks to 30 March 2019 on Thursday, 25 July 2019. from https://www.londonstockexchange.com/exc ... 96856.html

Presumably there'll be an update then.

PinkDalek wrote:

djbenedict wrote:Anybody know when the distribution of proceeds from the sale to Asahi is likely to take place?

I should have added As previously announced, Fuller, Smith & Turner P.L.C. will issue its full year results for the 52 weeks to 30 March 2019 on Thursday, 25 July 2019. from https://www.londonstockexchange.com/exc ... 96856.html

Presumably there'll be an update then.

Not much new on the return to shareholders but see viewtopic.php?p=239154#p239154

They have acquired a new freehold head office overlooking the River Thames at Strand on the Green.

djbenedict wrote:Anybody know when the distribution of proceeds from the sale to Asahi is likely to take place?

Now see viewtopic.php?p=249212#p249212 re proposed Return of Capital.