Harveys: a local champion

They're a feisty and determined lot in Lewes. Loath to suffer fools and usurpers, the fiercely independent streak that marks out this Sussex town stretches back more than two centuries to human rights pioneer Thomas Paine, who lived in Lewes before sailing to the American colonies in time to help steer revolting locals towards independence.

Having stirred things up across the Pond, Paine returned to put the heat under pre-revolutionary France with his book Rights of Man.

Like the town's most famous former resident, current-day Lewesians have a strong sense of 'self' and a fervent loyalty for all things 'Lewes'. The townsfolk have even gone to the length of creating their own currency, notes of which can be bought and then exchanged for goods throughout the town.

The Lewes '£1 note' bears Paine's image as well as one of the town's famous family-owned brewery, Harvey's. Unsurprisingly, Hamish Elder, joint managing director of Harvey & Son - to give Harvey's its proper title - carries one such note around in his wallet.

Elder, who shares the role of managing director with Miles Jenner, the company's head brewer, says much of the group's success stems from its commitment to the local area, whether through selling its beers or sourcing the raw materials, such as hops, that go into them.

Harvey's beers attract what Elder describes as a "fanatical following" in the town and neighbouring areas, a level of support that incentivises the brewer.

Local brownie points

"It's what keeps you going," he says. "It forces you to appreciate and understand the local market. It's unquantifiable in a financial sense. Points and pounds gained locally are much more important than those gained hundreds of miles away."

For this reason Harvey's doesn't directly sell its beers beyond a 60-mile radius of the brewery, although accounts with the large pubcos mean those living beyond this hinterland can savour them.

Retailing to customers within easy distance of the brewery and using locally sourced raw materials not only helps reinforce the local character of its ales; it helps with the beers' quality and it enhances Harvey's 'green' credentials. These include operating a refundable bottle scheme and near-totally recyclable packaging across its whole operation.

The loyalty that Harvey's and other Lewes businesses enjoy mean few who have 'crossed' one of the town's own are able to come away unscathed. One of the most notable examples of 'Lewes Power' came two years ago when Greene King decided to remove Harvey's Best Bitter from the Lewes Arms pub, which it then owned.

A row over whether a locally brewed beer should be barred from a pub owned by a brewer from a county more than 100 miles away swiftly went from a fairly local dispute to an international media phenomenon, with Greene King cast as the Bad Guy.

Elder was interviewed about the situation on national radio and TV, as well as newspapers such as the New York Times and Germany's Der Spiegel. While the episode was a PR disaster for Greene King, Elder is at pains to stress his company had no hand in the movement to discredit the Suffolk brewer's position.

People power

However, he does note that Greene King misread the strength of local feeling surrounding Harvey's.

The row, which resulted in a picket of the pub by livid local drinkers, finally ended with Greene King reinstating Harvey's beer, although it chose to focus on the pub as the crux of the dispute. It said at the time it had "underestimated the strength of feeling which led to many locals boycotting what was once a great British pub".

A year after Harvey's beers had been restored to the Lewes Arms, Greene King sold the pub to Fuller's. But even that deal left a sour taste. "They could have sold the pub to us," says Elder, "but they chose to sell it to Fuller's for £50,000 less than we offered." Harvey's has had the last laugh though; the Lewes Arms sells a lot more Harvey's Best Bitter every week than any other hand-drawn ale.

Though resolved, the echo of the Lewes Arms affair still resounds around the town and beyond.

"It cost Greene King a lot [of goodwill] in the county," says Elder, who is nevertheless happy to put the episode behind him.

Harvey's is now focusing on maintaining the quality of its beer, brewing more of it - it currently produces 1,000 barrels a week - and helping its 48 tenanted pubs get through one of the worst economic periods anyone at the company can remember.

Says Elder: "On the brewing side we're three per cent up on last year in barrelage terms and close to capacity, while our freetrade numbers are up 5.8 per cent. Our new 30,000 sq ft depot will help us enlarge the production side even more."

Meanwhile "most" of the group's pubs are doing well, he says, although the smoking ban has made its presence felt in a number of sites.

"Not all, but most of our pubs have improved overall since the ban came in," he says. "There need to be solutions to accommodate smokers and we've put these in where we can."

And while the ban is having some impact, Elder, like many in his position, thinks red tape is doing considerably more harm than good. "We seem to get new regulations every week and collectively the cost implications are enormous. The latest thing appears to be fire officers going round with clipboards, who aren't satisfied until they've found something wrong."

Supermarkets are the enemy

Elder reserves his real ire, however, for supermarkets, which he believes are the "single biggest enemy of the pub". Lewes has 17 pubs, one for every thousand or so inhabitants, and Elder believes that thanks to the work of the licensees in each of these pubs the town does not have a major problem with alcohol abuse.

While he credits the handful of supermarkets in the town with selling booze in an appropriate fashion, Elder says that elsewhere "alcohol retailing is being 'de-responsibilised', if I can use such a made-up word.

"The price has been driven down and there is no responsibility for what happens once it leaves their premises."

Another issue for Elder is that some brewers "run with the fox as well as the hounds". Too often brewers attack the supermarkets for selling alcohol at cheap prices one minute then do deals to sell them their beers the next, he argues. "They've got the tiger by the tail. More responsibility needs to be taken at the production level to act as a voice for this industry. Sometimes I think the British Beer & Pub Association should be called the British Beer & Supermarket Association."

Harvey's, which doesn't sell to supermarkets, has its own shop attached to the brewery, through which sells its beers in returnable bottles and polypins, together with wines it imports from around the world.

But supermarkets are not Elder's only target. "Why do we have petrol stations selling alcohol?" he asks. "Can you imagine a pharmacy moving its prescription drugs to an aisle out in the shop? It wouldn't happen. But it's been done with alcohol."

Elder manages to contain his frustration, but if you pin back an ear and listen carefully you can almost hear the executioners' tumbrils trundling down Lewes' main street. Thomas Paine, the town's original revolutionary, would have been proud…