Prevailing northerlies

In the second of our two-part series looking at brewers making waves in the north of England, Tony Halstead casts his eye over Robinson's while Adrian Tierney-Jones pays a visit to Moorhouse's

Safety first at Robinson's

Stockport-based Frederic Robinson is perhaps best known for its traditional beers and pubs and a long-held belief in running its tied estate by a simple straightforward tenancy system.

Outwardly little appears to have changed at Robinson's over the decades thanks to a safety-first policy which is still paying handsome dividends for the family-owned brewer. While other brewers and pub operators have changed their clothes, Robinson's habit has remained the same.

The company has steadfastly refused to bow to more outlandish industry trends or changing trade culture and has steadily prospered as a result. It is rumoured that Robinson's pub rents are among the lowest in the country, making up for a full beer and drinks tie and and an almost unspoken insistence on doing things the company way.

Certainly few of its licensees seem to complain about their lot and the fact that its pub estate is littered with different sections and generations of the same family happily running "Robbies'" pubs speaks volumes.

The statistics clearly support Robinson's stance as an uncomplicated and focused regional brewer. Its substantial 408-strong tied pub estate comprises just eight managed houses, a figure that has halved over the past few years.

And an amazing 95% of all Robinson's houses stock cask beers, which include the delights of Old Stockport Bitter, Hatters, Unicorn Bitter, Double Hop and the legendary 8.5% abv Old Tom ­ a dangerously strong dark beer, which the family hierarchy insist must "only be served in halves, even at Christmas".

"Cask ales remain our great strength," explains commercial director Oliver Robinson, one of the new batch of sixth-generation family members now working at the Unicorn Brewery.

"Real ale has been the rock of the company foundation over the years, but in recent times we have taken major strides to maintain both the quality and the profile of our various brands," he reveals.

The bulk of the company's cask beer production ­ some 80% of volumes ­ are sold into its tied-pub estate. But the 20% now finding its way into the free trade and pubco markets reflects the advances being made by Robinson's into new sales sectors.

New training initiatives in cellar maintenance, quality inspections and the arrival of new point-of-sale tools and badged glasses reflect how the company is now flying the flag for cask ale.

"Cask ale volumes may be running 6% down nationally but Robinson's sales reflect the 4% gains recorded by independent family brewers fairly accurately," he says.

"Free trade is becoming an increasingly important arena for Robinson's and we are working hard to increase our share of the market. But it's a competitive field and we have to fight hard, because there are so many other independents trying to sell their products into the pubco estates," he adds.

The annual Robinson's cellar competition ensures tenants maintain quality in their bars, and even in free-trade outlets the company is not content to let their ales be sold in a willy-nilly fashion.

"If a pub is serving our beer in a manner we do not find acceptable we pressure the licensee to make improvements," says Robinson.

"It's more easily achieved in our own estate, but we strive to ensure we control quality in other outlets wherever possible," he adds.

While a national presence for its beers is important, Robinson's is not over-concerned about piling in resources to establish a "national brand". Robinson prefers to build a beer brand which is available nationally ­ "an important difference," he says.

The Robinson's estate stretches from Cumbria in the north, where it acquired Hartleys at Ulverston (64 pubs) in the mid 1980s through the north west and Staffordshire across to north Wales where no less than 34 houses sport the company logo.

"We like to think we operate a friendly estate where customers can rely on real ale and traditional service. These are two of the core qualities that have underpinned the British pub over many years and we are working hard to maintain the tradition," says Robinson.

Lots of bottle ­ 18,000 an hour

Robinson's is not just a brewing and pubs company ­ it also runs one of the biggest bottling and packaging operations in the north of England.

The packaging centre at Bredbury, two miles out of Stockport, bottles ales, lagers and soft drinks for a host of different national and independent brewers and also enjoys a range of different kegging contracts.

Bottling began when the site opened in 1975. More recently a kegging line and cask-racking plant have also been added. The centre has 35 different customers on its books and sees a throughput of no less than 230 different drinks brands.

More than 18,000 bottles an hour roll off the line at top speed, employing two shifts that contribute to a total workforce of 110 on the site.

The centre is located close to the M6 Manchester Orbital motorway and is a natural home for the brewery's dray fleet.

The site is also home to the brewery laboratory, which is responsible for quality control of Robinson's in-house ales.

Expansion of the packaging plant has released valuable space at the Stockport town-centre Unicorn Brewery, where only brewing and company administration now takes place.

Ale is still brewed on the original site, but is bulk tankered up to Bredbury for kegging and racking for onward delivery to the company's tied and free trade accounts.

The generation game

Few licensees sum up the Robinson's ethos better than long-serving tenant Yvonne Hallworth, who runs the Davenport Arms at Woodford near Stockport.

The family has run the pub for the past 70 years and Yvonne is the third generation to keep the important link intact.

The pub prides itself on good ale and home-cooked food and on a strict policy of operating on traditional lines.

Old-fashioned opening hours are still the order of the day, with few other concessions to modern licensed-trade trends.

The pub, which is a regular in the Campaign for Real Ale (Camra) Good Beer Guide, has won numerous awards over the years and remains a popular haunt for legions of long-time customers.

Locals refer to the pub as "the Thief's Neck" ­ a reference to the days when ground at the rear of the building was used for executions.

The pub is also well-known for its legendary display of hanging baskets and floral tubs during the summer months, which have become an attraction all of their own over the years.

The "Thief's" has a legion of long-standing admirers and Camra is fulsome in its praise. "If every pub was run with the same passion and attention to detail as this one, our industry would have few problems to worry about," says a spokesman.

Moorhouse's makes its mark

The best cask beer in the world comes from Burnley, Lancashire, and that's official. After several years of being in the press for all the wrong reasons, 2004 saw Burnley in the news with a real feather in its cap. At the Brewing Industry International Awards in the spring, Pride of Pendle from Burnley-based Moorhouse's was voted Champion Cask-Conditioned Ale, making it officially the world's best cask ale. The brewery's Premier Bitter also won gold in the low-gravity class.

One can imagine celebrations in the town, with grateful citizens quaffing gallons of these well-crafted, complex bitters alongside Moorhouse's creamy Black Cat Mild, a former Champion Beer of Great Britain.

Actually, no. According to Moorhouse's managing director David Grant: "Few people know we're here. The local drinking public is not that aware that there is a world-class beer on its doorstep. We sell more beer in Chorley and Preston than in Burnley."

Nobody likes being a prophet without honour in his own land, but Moorhouse's can take consolation in its many awards and deep appreciatio