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    Thursday 6 November 2008

    The Tetleys Closure And Northampton

    It's interesting that Carlsberg are blaming, admittedly amongst other things, the current economic climate for their decision to close the Tetley Brewery in Leeds. I wrote this article back in June of last year. It was apparent at the time that one of the two breweries in England would close.

    At the time of course I hoped Northampton would stay open and I'm glad that it will. Inspite of the crap they are producing, it is still an important part of the town, and that site really should be producing beer.

    I am sad for Leeds, and feel for people who face losing their jobs. The World's not a good place to be in at the moment with litle income

    I'm therefore shocked to see comments from Northampton MP Sally Keeble in this article that "Hopefully this should be excellent news for Northampton." She is being just a little too parochial here even if she does add "So I am sorry for Leeds, but it should be really good news for Northampton."

    Carlsberg have suggested that production of cask ales will not transfer to Northampton, but will instead be outsourced to other Northern breweries. There are suggestions here though, that the brewery in Northampton may be in line for a serious extension. Time will tell of course. I'll keep my eyes and ears peeled.

    4 comments:

    Tandleman said...

    As I said on my own blog, Carlsberg's UK involvement has basically been one of incompetence. I don't think I care what they do now. They are an irrelevance.They will continue to lose market share I predict. Probably!

    Anonymous said...

    Maeib, you are right to highlight the job losses. The beer fades into insignificance when you consider that people will be unemployed.

    Unknown said...

    I've just been looking into this today and still can't believe that anyone's actually shocked.

    And I was going to blog about your cretinous MP who clearly hasn't been on the keep-gob-shut-about-other-peoples-crises course, but various Leeds bods managed to shoot themselves in their clown-feet as well. Which was far more entertaining.

    Anonymous said...

    Not exactly a surprise.

    Tetleys bitter, at least years ago, used to be a very acceptable drink. That was before it became the "official drink of the England Cricket Team" and similar twaddle. Much devalued by keg and smoothflow versions of course.

    The dark mild was also very good.

    I assume that the volumes of cask Tetleys are much down but still substantial. So are they going to terminate it ? Or if not who has the capacity to brew it (ignoring the fact that it probably taste different from elsewhere)?

    I am pretty sure that the Northampton plant was built for lager and could not brew Tetleys without investment.

    It amuses and baffles me how these clever(?) people at multi-national corporates seize on a "brand" and throw money at it one year and the next year it is history. They are about as competent as the bankers.