Boddingtons Brewery
Strangeways Brewery closed in 2004 and production of pasteurised (keg and can) Boddingtons was moved to Samlesbury in Lancashire.[7] Henry's youngest son, Robert Slater Boddington (1862–1930) had a fifty-year association with the company and oversaw the installation of a bottling hall in the 1920s.[20][21] The brewery was rebuilt with the most up-to-date and modern equipment of the time, and was the first in Europe to install stainless steel brewing vats.In 1969 the large Allied Breweries combine initiated a hostile takeover bid for Boddingtons, which valued the company at £5 million.[22] Charles Boddington took the unusual step of issuing a spirited defence of the company to the shareholders: You will be only too aware that present-day pressures bear heavily towards the elimination of individuality and character in many consumer goods.You, however, are still, at this moment in time, a shareholder in one of the remaining independent brewery companies whose traditional draught beers have a reputation for quality and individual character beyond the immediate area of the North of England in which we operate ...[28] During the 1970s the company operated within a 70-mile radius of Manchester, and growth was driven by the increasing popularity of its main product, Boddingtons Bitter.[5] Boddingtons had been in decline before the Whitbread takeover, and although it retained an almost "cult" following within its Manchester heartland, only 5 per cent of sales were outside the North West.[16] The rise in sales of the beer coincided with the elevation of Manchester from "city of dark, beaten mills to the cultural magnet of Madchester".At that time over ten percent of Boddingtons production was exported to some 40 countries worldwide, including China, the United States, Taiwan and the West Indies.[59] In August 2003, amidst falling sales, Interbrew relaunched the cask product in the North West of England, with an increased strength.In September 2004 the owners (now known as InBev) announced plans to close the Strangeways Brewery and move most production from Manchester to Magor in South Wales and Samlesbury, Lancashire, with the loss of 60 jobs.[62] Boddingtons cask ale production, which accounted for less than 10 per cent of output, was moved to Hydes Brewery in Moss Side.Under Whitbread's custodianship the comedian Frankie Howerd fronted the campaign in a series of six television advertisements which mainly aired in the North West in 1990–1991.[85] From July 1991 until 1999, a series of Boddingtons advertisements created by the Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH) agency used "The Cream of Manchester" tagline.[87] The television advertisements featured beautiful women with unlikely Mancunian accents and "achieved the seemingly impossible task of making bitter glamorous".According to the Manchester Evening News, "it told the world something about the reinvention of the murky old city, that its once-filthy waterway could almost pass for Venice.Managing director of Whitbread, Miles Templeman, explained that: We were thinking how to turn a second-rate north-west brand into something more stylish, to make it more appealing again.[88][91] The 1997 ice cream van advert was part of an £8m campaign launched on Saturday 20 September 1997, filmed in a California desert, featuring 35 year old Ken George from Huddersfield, a physics teacher, who taught for eight years at Fartown High School, and a county 800m champion;[92] he came from Longwood, and was a former British Polytechnic Sports Association champion, and competed with Martin Steele, from Fartown.[99][100] The last Boddingtons television advertising campaign in 2005 was criticised for capitalising on the beer's Manchester heritage with a Happy Mondays soundtrack, even though production had moved out of the city.
BrewingManchesterEnglandHectolitresGallonsAB InBevregional breweryNorth WestBoddingtons BitterbitterwidgetdraughtManchester UnitedCoronation StreetWhitbreadAnheuser–Busch InBevStrangeways BrewerypasteurisedSamlesburycask-conditionedHydes BreweryMoss SideManchester city centremill townOxfordshireNorth of Englandtied houseslimited liability companypublicGroves and WhitnallThrelfallspublic housestied estatefreehold1900 English beer poisoningmild alewater tanksManchester Blitzstainless steelPale aleSecond World WarReddishStockportAllied Brewerieshostile takeoverwhite knightGuinness DraughtHeinekenThe ObserverOldham BreweryHome CountiesHigsons BreweryLiverpoolThe GuardianMerseysideKaltenbergreverse takeoverTetleyJohn Smith'sMadchesterBanks's beerFlowersGreenallsInterbrewStella ArtoisSouth WalesLancashirecask aleVictorian timesBloomberg BusinessweekThe TimesAnheuser-Busch InBevBass aleTaiwanSingaporeUnited Arab Emiratessparklerdegrees CelsiusAndrew Jeffordabove the line advertisingGranadaFrankie Howerdadvertising agencyBartle Bogle HegartyMancunian accentsgondolasRiver IrwellCornettoManchester Evening NewsVeniceMiles TemplemanMelanie Sykestelevision presenterice cream vanHuddersfieldFartown High SchoolLongwoodMartin SteeleFartowntransgenderplayboybestialityhomosexualitydrug-takingXVII Commonwealth GamesHappy MondaysTransport & General Workers' UnionAnheuser-BuschDelta CorporationFour Peaks BreweryGrupo ModeloIntafact BeveragesInternational Breweries plcNile BreweriesSouth African BreweriesSechaba Brewery HoldingsKgalagadi BreweriesSt. Louis Refrigerated Car Co.Tanzania BreweriesCraft Brew AllianceAB InBev brandsMichel DoukerisAugust Busch IVAnson FrericksJorge Paulo LemannArnoud de Pret Roose de Calesberg