Greene King

History

The brewery was founded by Benjamin Greene in Bury St. Edmunds in 1799. In 1806 Benjamin Greene established a new venture with William Buck at the Westgate Brewery. In 1836 Edward Greene took over the business and in 1887 it merged with Frederick William King's brewing business to create Greene King.

Greene King has grown via mergers and acquisitions, including Rayments Brewery (1961), the Magic Pub Company (1996), Hungry Horse (1996), Morland Brewery (1999), Old English Inns (2001), Morrells (2002), a large part of the Laurel Pub Company (2004), Ridley's Brewery (2005), Belhaven Brewery (2005), Hardys and Hansons (2006), the Loch Fyne fish restaurant chain (2007), Cloverleaf (2011), Realpubs (2011), the Capital Pub Company (2011) and the Spirit Pub Company (2015).

The Spirit acquisition, where Greene King bought Spirit for £773.6m, took the total number of Greene King sites to 3,116, brought 14 brands together and made Greene King the largest managed pub company in the UK. It was completed on 23 June 2015.

Operations

The Greene King brewery in Bury St Edmunds produces beers branded in the names of breweries now closed, including Morland (Old Speckled Hen), Ruddles, Hardys & Hanson and Tolly Cobbold. The Belhaven brewery in Dunbar continues to operate in Scotland.

The group operates 3,100 pubs, restaurants and hotels:

Visitor centre

There is a visitor centre next to the brewery, and tours are run regularly throughout the week. The brewery has an exhibition of pub sign artwork by George Taylor, who designed over 250 such signs for Greene King pubs. Visitors can also go on regular hour-long tours of the brewery, to see traditional brewing methods. All brewery tours end with a beer tasting session at the Beer Café.

Following the opening of the Greene King Beer Café, brewery tours now finish here with a beer tasting session. The Beer Café is located next to the brewery and serves food and a range of Greene King and Belhaven beers in cask and keg. Visitors can also buy bottled beers and branded gifts.

Criticism

Greene King's ongoing business expansion has sometimes been the subject of criticism. As a result of its active acquisition policy, it has come to be known by beer protesters as Greedy King. The British consumer group CAMRA claimed that Greene King is in danger of becoming a monopoly by buying out other breweries and thus potentially limiting choice for the pub consumer. The growing consumer reaction to this shift was demonstrated towards the end of 2006 when a pub in Lewes, East Sussex started a well-publicised protest against Greene King for removing the locally produced Harveys Sussex Best Bitter from sale, while continuing to sell other guest beers.

In January 2014, popular Manchester pub The Lass O'Gowrie, voted "Best Pub in Britain" at the Great British Pub Awards in 2012, closed after landlord Gareth Kavanagh was forced out in an argument over rent. Having lost 40% of their trade after the BBC moved to Salford, Kavanagh had won a rent reduction at an independent tribunal before being forced out by the brewery.

Greene King has also been criticised for removing many traditional and historic pub signs as part of rebranding schemes.

Greene King

Hardy's and Hansons

Morland

Ridley's

Ruddles

Trader Joe's

In March 2016, Greene King won Best Managed Pub Company (51+ sites) at the 2016 Publican Awards. Greene King's chief executive, Rooney Anand, also won Business of the Year Award at the Publican Awards 2016.