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Boddingtons Brewery

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Boddingtons
Boddingtons logo
TypeBitter
ManufacturerAnheuser–Busch InBev
Country of origin England
Introduced1778
Alcohol by volume 3.5%

Boddingtons Bitter is an English bitter beer. It was originally brewed at the Strangeways Brewery, Manchester, England and was promoted in a popular advertising campaign as The Cream of Manchester during the 1990s. The campaign was credited with revitalising the image of Manchester, Boddingtons becoming one of the city's most famous products and second only to Manchester United and Coronation Street in raising the profile of the city.

Boddingtons Brewery was bought by Whitbread in 1989. They increased the marketing budget and extended distribution nationwide. The market share for the beer peaked in 1998. The company is currently owned by Anheuser–Busch InBev who purchased the Whitbread Beer Company in 2000.

In 2004 the Strangeways brewery was closed and production of pasteurised Boddingtons was relocated to Magor, South Wales and Samlesbury, Lancashire. Production of the cask conditioned variant was moved to Hydes Brewery in Moss Side, Manchester where it was manufactured until March 2012. Its current brewing location is undisclosed.

History

1778-1970

Strangeways Brewery before its demolition in 2007.

Strangeways Brewery was founded by two grain merchants, Thomas Caister and Thomas Fry, in 1778 just north of Manchester city centre.[1] Cotton workers were their principal customers.[2] Henry Boddington was born in 1813 in Thame, Oxfordshire to a Calvinist family.[3] When he joined the brewery in 1832 as a commercial traveller, the brewery was owned by Hole, Potter, and Harrison.[4] Like most Manchester breweries at the time, it was a modestly sized operation.[4] On 8 July 1847 he married Martha, the daughter of a dyer and banker from Salford.[4] By 1848 Boddington had risen to partner in the company.[5][6] In 1853 he borrowed money to become the sole owner of the enterprise. By the early 1860s output had reached nearly 17,000 barrels a year, rising to 50,000 by 1874.[6] By 1877 Boddingtons was brewing around 100,000 barrels of beer a year, making it not only Manchester's largest brewer, but one of the largest in the North of England.[4] In 1883 Henry Boddington & Co Ltd was registered as a limited liability company.[6] When Henry Boddington died in 1886 his estate was valued at almost £150,000.[4]

By 1892 the company owned 212 public houses, making theirs the twelfth largest tied estate in the United Kingdom.[7] The family retained an interest in the firm; Henry's youngest son, Robert Slater Boddington (1862–1930) had a fifty year association with the company, acting as chairman from 1908 until his death in 1930.[4] By the 1930s the Boddington family shareholding in the company had dwindled to around 40 per cent.[8] Robert's third and fourth sons Philip (1893–1952) and Charles (1897–1982) both served as joint chairman of the firm after their father's death, with Charles taking sole responsibility after Philip's death.[9][10] In 1969 Allied Breweries attempted a hostile takeover of the company.[11] Whitbread acted as a white knight however, taking a minority stake in the company to fend off the bid.[11] In 1970 Philip retired and his son Ewart Boddington assumed the directorship of the company.[12]

1970-1989

In the early 1970s the famous Boddingtons logo depicting a barrel and two bees was introduced.[13] The bee has been the symbol of Manchester since the time when it was "the hive of industry".[13] In 1974 the company still only operated within a 70 mile radius of Manchester.[14] In January 1982 it purchased the Oldham Brewery for £23 million.[15] After the acquisition, the company owned 272 public houses, 70 per cent of which were within 20 miles of its Manchester brewery.[15] By 1985 Strangeways was producing only two beers, a bitter and a mild, with bitter constituting over 90 per cent of production.[16] In 1986 the company employed 280 people and operated 530 tied houses, and the Strangeways brewery had a capacity of 500,000 barrels a year, although the brewery was operating at around 50 per cent capacity.[6][16] Boddingtons remained independent until November 1989, when the last chairman Ewart Boddington sold the Strangeways brewery and the Boddingtons brand to Whitbread for £50.7 million.[12] Whitbread were motivated by the possibility of plugging a gap in their portfolio by owning a credible national cask ale brand.[17] The beer had a strong reputation among beer aficionados, with Roger Protz commenting: "When I first encountered Boddington’s Bitter in a pub in Hyde near Manchester, I refused to leave. I didn’t know that beer could taste quite that good."[18] The sale was an amicable one, with both parties aware that Whitbread capital and distribution could make the Boddingtons brand a national one.[19] Boddingtons had been in a state of decline prior to the Whitbread takeover, although it retained an almost 'cult' following within its Manchester area heartland.[20]

Whitbread era

Whitbread transformed the brand from a regional one to a national one. From 200,000 barrels a year in 1989, Whitbread had doubled production by 1992, and tripled the original figure by 1994 to 600,000 barrels a year, further rising to 850,000 by 1995.[21][22] The beer also had the status of highest selling canned bitter in the UK throughout the 1990s. The Whitbread expansion was mostly of the nitrogenated canned and keg versions of the bitter, described by The Oxford Companion To Beer as "somewhat bland".[23] The beer began to be exported overseas in 1993. The extraordinary rise of the beer coincided with the elevation of Manchester from "city of dark, beaten mills to the cultural magnet of Madchester".[20] Manchester and the North of England were now fashionable in the public consciousness, and rejuvenated from industrial slump. Whitbread chief executive Peter Jarvis commented in 1995 that:

"It was very fortuitous that the brewery was in Manchester. To outsiders, Manchester is a very attractive place - known the world over for soccer, art, music and broadcasting. It would be difficult to have a Cream of Wolverhampton even though Banks's beer is very good. People do not aspire to visit Wolverhampton. On the whole they try to by- pass it."[21]

By 1998 Boddingtons sales had peaked.[24] The success was attributed to an excellent marketing campaign, and being the first canned ale to be sold with a widget after Guinness Bitter.[20] Boddingtons had been turned into: "a fashion product...and as with all fashion products, the drinkers moved on".[25] From September 1998 Whitbread began brewing Boddingtons with hop extracts instead of hops as a cost-saving measure.[26]

Decline under InBev

Boddingtons Pub Ale

In May 2000 the Whitbread Beer Company was acquired by Interbrew, which soon afterwards became known as InBev. In that same year, one in eight barrels of Boddingtons was exported to some 40 countries worldwide, including China, the United States, Taiwan and the West Indies.[27] In 2003, amidst falling sales, InBev relaunched the cask product in the North West of England, raising the strength of the beer and adding more malt to the recipe.[28] The relaunch was unsuccessful however, and InBev quickly reversed the changes.

In September 2004 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.[29] Two years earlier the brewery had employed 250 people.[30] Only the brewing of Boddingtons cask ale, which accounted for 10 per cent of sales, would remain in the city, being moved to Hydes Brewery in Moss Side.[31] The closure plan came despite the company admitting that the brewery was profitable.[32] A spokesman for the firm argued: "[The] building was built in the Victorian times and it is an old historic brewery but it was a victim of its age. It is an inflexible brewery - it can't bottle or can and customer needs have moved on".[33] Production at the brewery ended in February 2005 and it was demolished in 2007.[34]

In May 2010, The Times speculated that InBev would attempt to sell the Boddingtons brand to another brewer, following their failed attempt to sell the UK rights to Bass ale.[35] The newspaper was damning of what they perceived as InBev's mismanagement of the brand which had "declined under AB InBev’s hands. The brand was once a leading part of the old Whitbread Beer Company, but its fortunes have dwindled since the closure in 2005 of the Strangeways brewery."[35]

The beer writer Pete Brown has argued that the beer "used to be great" but had been "quite deliberately run...into the ground, [with InBev] withdrawing all marketing support."[36] As of 2010, it is the sixth highest selling bitter in the United Kingdom, although sales have dropped by almost three quarters since the takeover by Anheuser–Busch InBev in 2000.[37] In July 2011 AB InBev's UK president Stuart MacFarlane claimed "We still believe in the brand" whilst admitting to not advertising the brand for five years, instead reaping the rewards of memories of its advertising ten years ago.[38]

Products

  • Boddingtons Draughtflow (3.5% ABV)
The most popular variant of the beer. A pasteurised and nitrogenated bitter available in cans and kegs. The canned variant, launched in 1991, contains a widget. It is brewed in Samlesbury and Magor. The ABV was reduced from 3.8% to 3.5% in late 2008. On draught it is served at 10-12 degrees celsius, although an Extra Cold variant served at 3 to 5 degrees celsius was launched in 2006.[39][40]
  • Boddingtons Pub Ale (4.7% ABV)
Predominantly brewed for export markets, such as the United States, where it has been available since 1994.[41] The UK version, launched in summer 1995, came in 330ml bottles and was known as Boddingtons Export.[42] Bad marketing was blamed for poor sales, and it was discontinued in mid-1996.[42][43]
  • Boddingtons Cask (3.8% ABV)
The original cask conditioned variant of the beer, it is rarely seen outside the beer's North West of England heartland.[44] It was contract brewed for AB InBev by Hydes until March 2012.[45] In 2003 the ABV was raised to 4.1% but was quickly reverted.[46] Its volumes in 2010 were around 50,000 barrels.[47] This was a sharp fall because, as recently as 2001, there had been annual sales of 290,000 barrels.[48]

Advertising

Boddingtons was advertised on Granada television in the North West of England from 1987 onwards with the tagline was "If you don't get Boddies, you'll just get bitter". Under Whitbread's custodianship, Frankie Howerd was enlisted to appear in a series of six early 1990s television advertisements for the brand.[49]

An award winning Boddingtons print advertisement from 1993.

From 1990 until 1999 there was a long running set of advertisements with The Cream of Manchester tagline. The campaign would be credited with revitalising the image of Manchester and was arguably second only to Manchester United and Coronation Street in raising the city's profile.[50] The campaign went nationwide in 1992.[51][52][53] The television advertisements featured beautiful women with unlikely Mancunian accents and "achieved the seemingly impossible task of making bitter glamorous".[52][54] The prominent role assigned to women in the campaign was an attempt to broaden the appeal of the bitter.[55] A then unknown Melanie Sykes achieved fame through her appearances in the adverts from 1996 until 1999.[52][56] The series won a number of international advertising awards for their creator, Bartle Bogle Hegarty. The brand's creaminess was emphasised through face cream, ice cream, sun cream and whipped cream. 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. BBH thought of focusing on the creamy aspect, of selling a beer like a face cream.[20]

Animated television advertisements starring the transgender playboy cow Graham Heffer ran from summer 1999 until 2001 with the tagline Chilled Cream and from 2001-2002 with the tagline Better chilled than spilled.[57][58][59] Two of the adverts featured Des O'Connor and Loyd Grossman.[60] The adverts attracted complaints from viewers for allegedly promoting bestiality, homosexuality and drug-taking.[61]

Adverts in 2002 returned to glamorous women, with the tagline: "Boddingtons - it's a bit gorgeous."[62] These were not successful however, and The Independent identified it as bad advertising.[61][63] 2002 also saw Boddingtons become an official partner of the XVII Commonwealth Games held in Manchester in a deal worth at least £1 million.[61][64] To mark the occasion, a special Boddingtons 5% ABV Commonwealth Ale cask ale was produced for the North West of England.[65]

2003 saw £1 million spent for Boddingtons to sponsor the popular television programme Reborn in the USA and a total of £14 million for the brand.[66][67] A 2004 campaign starring Alison King saw four men attempt to smuggle Boddingtons out of a club.[68] The last Boddingtons television campaign was in 2005. It was criticised for capitalising on the Manchester heritage of the beer with a Happy Mondays soundtrack, even though production had moved out of the city.[69] Mike Thompson, a former worker at the brewery and representative of the Transport & General Workers' Union, said:

This is at best cynical and at worst a slur on our great city, its heritage and the Boddingtons workers. People have lost their livelihoods because of how this company has behaved. They will not be best pleased at what we can only see as pouring salt on the wounds.[70]


See also


Further reading

  • Jacobson, Michael (1978). 200 Years of Beer: The Story of Boddingtons Strangeways Brewery, 1778-1978. Manchester: Boddington Breweries Ltd.
  • Redman, N.B. (July 1995). "The history of the Boddingtons Brewery at Strangeways, Manchester". The Brewer. pp. 288–295.

References

  1. ^ "Directory of UK real Ale Breweries". Quaffale.org.uk. Retrieved 22 October 2011.
  2. ^ "Boddies: 200 years of beers". BBC. Retrieved 22 October 2011.
  3. ^ "Record of Life of Henry Boddington" (PDF). Boddington-family.org.uk. Retrieved 22 October 2011.
  4. ^ a b c d e f Wilson, R. G. (Oct 2007). "Oxford Dictionary of National Biography" ((Subscription or UK public library membership required)). Oxford University Press. Retrieved 12 May 2011.
  5. ^ "Blue Plaque to Henry Boddington in Thame". Oxfordshireblueplaques.org.uk. 4 November 2010. Retrieved 22 October 2011.
  6. ^ a b c d Richmond, Lesley; Turton, Alison (1990). The Brewing industry: a guide to historical records. Manchester University Press. p. 75. ISBN 978-0-7190-3032-1. Retrieved 7 May 2011.
  7. ^ A History of Beer and Brewing , p571
  8. ^ The Oxford Companion to Beer By Garrett Oliver, Tom Colicchi, p139
  9. ^ "Boddington family; Person record". Boddington-family.org.uk. Retrieved 22 October 2011.
  10. ^ "Boddington family; Person record". Boddington-family.org.uk. Retrieved 22 October 2011.
  11. ^ a b The Oxford Companion to Beer By Garrett Oliver, Tom Colicchio p139
  12. ^ a b Untitled Document
  13. ^ a b "Boddies: 200 years of beers". BBC. Retrieved 22 October 2011.
  14. ^ The small beer versus the brewers Jones, David. The Observer (1901- 2003) [London (UK)] 09 June 1974: 15.
  15. ^ a b "Boddingtons' lifts dividend". The Times. 18 Sept 1982. p. 9. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  16. ^ a b Shut up about Barclay Perkins: Quiz solution
  17. ^ Opening Times: Issue No. 69
  18. ^ Beer Blog with Roger Protz: New life for Bass and Boddies?
  19. ^ "Boddies: 200 years of beers". BBC. Retrieved 22 October 2011.
  20. ^ a b c d "The MT Interview: Miles Templeman". Management Today. 1 October 2003. Retrieved 22 October 2011.
  21. ^ a b "Dream Of A Job For The Cream Of Whitbread". Evening Standard. 6 November 1995.
  22. ^ Do Creative Commercials Sell?: Leo Burnett's Donald Gunn got so sick of the 'do award-winning ads shift product' debate that he decided to do some number crunching to settle the matter and nail the misconceptions once and for all, Campaign, Sept 22, 1995
  23. ^ The Oxford Companion to Beer By Garrett Oliver, Tom Colicchio, p139
  24. ^ The Northern Echo April 7, 1998 ANOTHER THREE BITE THE DUST, p11
  25. ^ The cream of Durham Protz, Roger. The Guardian (1959-2003) [London (UK)] 21 Nov 1998: C85.
  26. ^ Buchan, Ursula (22 August 1998). "Cuttings". The Independent. London.
  27. ^ "Howard Takes The Cream Of Manchester To Sales Record In His Singapore Bar". Manchester Evening News. 29 August 2000.
  28. ^ Godsell, Melanie (28 March 2007). "Boddingtons plans revamp". Marketing Magazine. p. 10. Retrieved 7 May 2011.
  29. ^ "InBev to close Boddington's". Modern Brewery Age. 20 September 2004. Retrieved 22 October 2011.
  30. ^ Wainwright, Martin (10 September 2002). "Boddington's Strangeways brewery loses 68 jobs in Interbrew shake-up". The Guardian. London.
  31. ^ 'Betrayal' cry as Boddies brewery gets the axe | Manchester Evening News - menmedia.co.uk
  32. ^ Hall, William (28 October 2004). "Manchester united in battle over Boddingtons". The Financial Times. Retrieved 22 October 2011.
  33. ^ Snowdon, Neal (4 February 2005). "Boddingtons' bitter end". Manchester Evening News. Retrieved 22 October 2011.
  34. ^ Rooth, Ben (16 March 2007). "The bitter end for Boddies". Manchester Evening News. Retrieved 22 October 2011.
  35. ^ a b Walsh, Dominic (26 May 2010). "Buyer sought for beer that Britain forgot". The Times. London.
  36. ^ Pete Brown's Beer Blog: The Big Boys
  37. ^ Alcoholic Drinks: Euromonitor from trade sources/national statistics, 2011
  38. ^ The Grocer July 16, 2011, p34
  39. ^ "Boddingtons in £14m spend". Morning Advertiser. 5 December 2002. Retrieved 22 October 2011.
  40. ^ InBev takes first dip in extra-cold waters
  41. ^ Jones, Helen (18 December 1994). "UK ales come on strong in America Marketing: fuller-flavoured regional British brews are suddenly making inroads into the increasingly sophisticated US market". The Independent. London. Retrieved 7 May 2011.
  42. ^ a b Benady, David (24 May 1996). "Boddington's Export to be axed after poor sales". Marketing Week. Retrieved 7 May 2011.
  43. ^ "Whitbread's widget targets bottled ales". The Grocer. 8 April 1995. Retrieved 7 May 2011.
  44. ^ "New hope for Bass and Boddingtons". Morning Advertiser. 7 June 2010. Retrieved 22 October 2011.
  45. ^ Hydes hails a 'very satisfactory' year | North West Caterer
  46. ^ Halstead, Tony (28 January 2004). "Strong Boddies seduces Camra". Morning Advertiser. Retrieved 22 October 2011.
  47. ^ Hydes: profits drop sharply
  48. ^ Strong Boddies seduces Camra
  49. ^ The Grocer, November 10, 1990
  50. ^ October 28, 2004 3:00 am Manchester united in battle over Boddingtons, Financial Times
  51. ^ Brierley, Sean (2002). The advertising handbook. Routledge. p. 138. ISBN , 978-0-41-524391-9. Retrieved 7 May 2011. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help)
  52. ^ a b c "Peter Kay most popular when it comes to 'bloke beer adverts'". The Daily Telegraph. London. 2 September 2009. Retrieved 7 May 2011.
  53. ^ Barrett, Lucy (26 August 1999). "ADWATCH: Boddingtons' playboy cow ads score with TV audiences - Boddingtons is living up to its iconoclastic past with the animated antics of Graham the cow, writes Lucy Barret". Media Week. Retrieved 7 May 2011.
  54. ^ Cozens, Claire (17 January 2002). "Closing time for Boddingtons' cartoon cow". MediaGuardian. London: Guardian News and Media.
  55. ^ The other half raise a glass to another half Arnot, Chris. The Observer (1901- 2003) [London (UK)] 18 Sep 1994: 13.
  56. ^ "It's time to moo-ve on, Graham". Manchester Evening News. 18 January 2002. Retrieved 7 May 2011.
  57. ^ "Ad of the week: Boddingtons' dairy cream". The Daily Telegraph. London. 3 October 2000. Retrieved 7 May 2011.
  58. ^ "Brand Health Check: Boddingtons". Campaign. 8 February 2002. Retrieved 7 May 2011.
  59. ^ http://www.thegrocer.co.uk/fmcg/the-cow-jumps/71280.article
  60. ^ http://www.thegrocer.co.uk/fmcg/milking-boddingtons-cow/63241.article
  61. ^ a b c Brownsell, Alex (30 July 2008). "Brand Health Check: Boddingtons". Marketing Magazine. p. 24.
  62. ^ Whitehead, Jennifer (11 February 2002). "Boddingtons drops the cow for new campaign". Marketing Magazine. Retrieved 7 May 2011.
  63. ^ York, Peter (24 February 2002). "Advertising: Boddingtons girls like to be on top". The Independent. London.
  64. ^ "Boddies joins cream of Games sponsors". Manchester Evening News. 15 January 2002. Retrieved 22 October 2011.
  65. ^ "Boddies toast success of the Games". Middleton Guardian. M.E.N. Media. 16 May 2002.
  66. ^ "Granada Is Reborn In The USA With Boddingtons". MediaTel. 6 February 2003. Retrieved 22 October 2011.
  67. ^ http://www.thegrocer.co.uk/fmcg/boddingtons-pumps-pillows/89478.article
  68. ^ Butcher, Jim (30 April 2004). "New face for Boddingtons". Mad.co.uk. Retrieved 22 October 2011.
  69. ^ "Boddingtons in Manchester 'slur'". BBC News. 10 June 2005. Retrieved 22 October 2011.
  70. ^ Stevenson, Rachel (14 June 2005). "Boddingtons beer advert falls flat". The Independent. London. Retrieved 22 October 2011.
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