Industry Brewing Successor Watney Mann Products Beer Founded 1837 | Fate Acquired Defunct 1958 Headquarters London, United Kingdom Ceased operations 1958 | |
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Watney Combe & Reid was a leading brewing business in London. At its peak in the 1930s it was a constituent of the FT 30 index of leading companies on the London Stock Exchange. It produced the beer brand Watney's Red Barrel.
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History
The Watney family were the main partners in the Stag Brewery, Victoria, for much of the 19th century. In 1837 James Watney became a partner in the brewery, followed by his sons James and Norman in 1856. On his death in 1884, the brewery became a private limited company.
In 1889 James Watney & Co., acquired the Mortlake Brewery (latterly referred to as the Stag Brewery of Mortlake), which had been owned by Charles James Philips and James Wigan since the 1840s.
In 1898 the company merged with Combe Delafield and Co. and Reid and Co., and was subsequently known as Watney Combe and Reid. The amalgamated company was the largest brewer in London. The Combe brewery in Longacre and the Reid brewery in Clerkenwell closed almost immediately, and production was concentrated on the Watney Stag Brewery in Pimlico. The company had an annual output of 1.8 million hectolitres (some 39.5 million imperial gallons).
Watney Mann was formed in 1958 with the merger of Watney, Combe, Reid & Co. Ltd with Mann, Crossman & Paulin Ltd.
When the Stag Brewery in Victoria was demolished in 1959 the name was transferred to Mortlake Brewery.
The business acquired other brewers, including Wilsons of Manchester, Phipps NBC of Northampton, Samuel Webster & Sons of Halifax and Ushers of Trowbridge, before being taken over by Grand Metropolitan, a hotels and catering group, in 1972 and closed in 1979.
Watneys Red Barrel
Watneys Red Barrel was a bitter which sold highly in the United Kingdom during the 1960s and 1970s. It was introduced in 1931 as an export keg beer that could travel for long distances by being made stable through filtering and pasteurising – as such it was the first keg beer. It was renamed to just "Red" in 1971.
A 3.9% abv pale lager with the name Watneys Red Barrel was sold by the Sleeman Brewery until 1997 and a 6.0% beer with the same name is still brewed by Alken-Maes.
Advertising
For many years, Watney's advertised with the strapline "What we want is Watney's".