Seventeen years of challenge and change
On 30 June, I had lived in Edinburgh for 17 years! That meant I had been at the Caledonian brewing Company for 6,209 days.
I happened to be in Burton-on-Trent, home of English brewing history and, when I re-located north, of Bass and Allied, now ex-brewing companies, along with Whitbread, Grand Met/Courage and S&N.
As I started my drive north, I recalled a Tennent's lager brand presentation by a very talented young brand manager, Mark Hunter. It was just as I was passing Coors Burton offices: Mark is now their UK CEO.
I wondered how he sees pubs and beer in Scotland compared with England; when I saw a pub plastered in England flags my mind wandered to World Cups over the years since I first met Mark.
The heady heights of fourth for England in 1990 (Mr Capello should have played Nessun Dorma in the team hotel last month!) meant a very popular World Cup — but less hype. England did not qualify in 1994. In France in '98, Scotland joined them. I saw two tickets for Scotland versus Brazil fetch £38,000 at a Glasgow v Edinburgh bidding war!
Scotland have not since made the finals, but had exciting near-misses, while England perfected agonising defeats, often on penalties.
Tongue-in-cheek rivalry prompted Tennent's lager advertising in 2002: "Support Sven's Team", "C'mon the tartan Argie" and the most amusing "Och Aye Kanu" (referring to the Nigerian striker).
So I reminisced about many events over those 17 years while driving back, including two Scottish beers winning back-to-back Supreme Campaign for Real Ale Champion Beer awards at the Great British Beer Festival, proving that football is not the only English creation to be challenged!
But with British pubs, whatever team you support, a common goal of improvement is required to ensure we beat the rest of the world forever more!
Let's match the reputation of Burton in its heyday, Mark's brand presentation and the value added by Scottish cask breweries to British pubs.
The next World Cup needs less hype, and England and Scotland to qualify and ideally do well. By then our industry will to have faced many more challenges and I might be celebrating 21 years in Edinburgh!
I may be dreaming... but on how many counts only time will tell!
Stephen Crawley is MD of Caledonian Brewing Company
