Beer's shadowlands
One of the most eerie travelling experiences is to visit lost or deserted cities old mining towns in the Rockies, Greek settlementsin mainland Turkey, or even the palaces of Fetehpur Sikri in Rajasthan. This sumptuous capital, built by Akbar the Great, was abandoned after just 16 years through lack of water. I got exactly the same feeling recently when I popped in to the Cape Hill Brewery in Smethwick. How sad to see once so mighty an establishment now a shadow of its former self. I had called in for a coffee with Bob Cartwright of Six Continents (formally Bass Retail) to once again visit the hallowed halls of our industry's heritage. The Mitchell family built the original brewery in 1879, their business merging with the Butlers brewery just before the century's end. As a licensees' representative, I was a frequent visitor for many years. The boardroom was the place where the tenants' committees would meet the directors. The boardroom was tradition-personified dark wood panelling, with an array of various Mitchells and Butlers dignitaries gazing fiercely down on you. Did they ever smile in the 19th Century? It was said that you knew you had made it when you got the key to visit the lavatory and were allowed to sit where the great Henry Mitchell had relaxed pre-occupied in strategic thought. Yet the only hint of service to the higher echelon was an array of brushes and a comb. It may seem surprising, indeed unhygienic, that directors would share a comb, but let's not forget they were inevitably related by family or marriage! The boardroom is where, famously, the tenants' leader Tony Morris told Charles Darby during the early 1980s that, with high rents and the then recession, all the tenants could do was "to bear their poverty with dignity". Tony then got into his Rolls- Royce and went back to the Peacock near Redditch. I managed to persuade him to come in his second car on future occasions. Licensees come in all shapes and sizes (usually XL to FB). One week we had two meetings within Bass Mitchells and Butlers, and the subject of the quality of draught Bass had been tabled for bothcommittees M&B Central and Bass Worthington. The chairman of M&B Central was Reginald Jackson-Cox, who would always remind the company of the fact that he was also a shareholder. Reginald introduced the subject "that whilst holding the utmost respect for our head brewer, I have to say that our company's premium bitter has not been up to the high standards we licensees have come to expect." At the next meeting, Landon Davies (still a Potteries licensee) led on exactly the same item on the agenda, looked up and said "Rupert [Wilkins, the MD] thee Bass is s***!" This was the venue where I asked Ian Payne about a section in the then new Bass Lease that if the company ever sold the pubs to a non-brewer, did it not allow the purchaser the ability to tie the licensees for everything with little or no protection whatsoever? He replied: "Do you think this company would ever sell thepubs of our most able licensees?" "Shut up Phil", whispered one of the reps, "they'll never sell us, we make too much money." Wrong! Incidentally, I am sure Ian was 100% genuine in his response at the time. It was also the place of mysaddest experience in company/licensee meetings when director John Dick, riddled with cancer, took out his diary at the end of proceedings to propose the date of the next meeting. A meeting everyone knew he would not be able to attend. It was several seconds before any of us could respond and many, including myself, were attempting to dry/conceal the tears. He died a few weeks later. 6C is to be split into two halves shortly and the retail division either sold or re-launched with a new name. 6C to be, what, Three C? I sensed from Bob there were no daft names in the pipeline. Indeed, how long will it be before Diageo is "Consigniad" to the dustbin of history?
