Cork stout in defence of Beamish individuality
Heineken — which owns the northside Murphy’s brewery — and Carlsberg yesterday jointly won the fight to take over as owners of the Beamish & Crawford brewery on the southside.
Yesterday drinkers, publicans and workers were taking in the news that both the Rebel City’s stout breweries will be owned by one company in future.
“Cork is a big enough city and I would imagine both the breweries run at a profit — they’re not losing money,” said barman John Walsh at Cork’s Brown Derby, in the shadow of Beamish & Crawford.
“The takeover could be a positive thing,” he added, saying the popularity of Beamish had soared in recent years.
“But this is a Beamish house and people would not want Beamish interfered with and people would worry about jobs.”
Businessman Finbarr O’Shea co-owns the Flying Enterprise restaurant, pub and shop complex adjacent to Beamish’s.
“I would not be surprised if another brewery, one that does not trade in Ireland at the moment, came in and took it [Beamish’s] over,” he said.
He said the Beamish brewery was important for tourism as well as a vital source of business for his establishment, which employs 35 staff.
Round the corner at Forde’s pub, proprietor Mary Saunders said both Beamish and Murphy’s were good companies with which to do business.
“The customers here don’t know what will happen and most people I know who work there have been there since they left school,” she said.
About a quarter of a mile away on Cork’s northside is the Corner House pub, just a few hundred yards from Murphy’s brewery.
Inside supping a pint of €3.50 Beamish was accountant Michael Walsh, who said: “Beamish is a better drink and is cheaper by 50 cents than either Murphy’s or Guinness but even if the price goes up I would still drink Beamish as it’s the best pint in town.”
Landlord Fearghal MacGabhann smiles when he says Beamish is the biggest seller in his pub, which is a stone’s throw or two from Murphy’s and also sells that brewery’s stout, as well as Guinness. “Beamish is only brewed in Cork but Guinness is brewed all over the world, as is Murphy’s and Heineken,” he said.
Next to Murphy’s Brewery is Pa Johnson’s pub, in Carrolls Quay, where musician Joe Horgan viewed the takeover as good news.
“It’s a Cork firm taking over another Cork firm,” he said, adding the takeover was the lesser of two evils.
“I’m a Heineken fan and think they do great advertising.”
But there was public concern about what would happen to the heritage of the two breweries when the merger goes ahead this year.
“When Heineken took over the Murphy’s brewery they just changed the name from Lady’s Well Brewery to Heineken Ireland overnight,” said one shop worker.
“That bugged me and a lot of people are still asking why they changed it. The brewery’s been there since 1856 and the Beamish one since 1798, I think.”
Estate agent Alan Burke, who works for Lucy Wolfe and Associates, near the Beamish brewery, pointed to the commercial reality of the new Ireland when he said both breweries sit on lucrative plots of land.
“Beamish’s would be a very valuable site. It has everything: it’s close to town, it has the riverside aspect and there’s a good size of land,” he said.
“It’s the same at the other side of town at the Heineken brewery.”
MURPHY’S Brewery was taken over by Heineken in 1983 and has grown strongly in the Irish market. However, its core Murphy’s stout brand stood at just 5.5% by the end of 2006.
In that year, though, the group boosted total sales by 2% to €332 million while its overall share of the beer market rose 1.3% to 21.6% in a market that has been static.
Heineken lager is the top-selling lager in Ireland with a share of 28% and claims to be the fastest-growing beer in this market.
The company’s turnover was underpinned by strong market share growth across each of its offerings, including Heineken lager, Coors Light and Amstel.
The group has benefited hugely in Ireland from very strong market focus.
Its close rival Budweiser, owned by Guinness, has a more modest 16.8% share.
ESTABLISHED in 1792, Beamish & Crawford employs a total of 200 workers.
Its brands, which it either owns or distributes in Ireland, include Beamish Genuine Irish Stout, Beamish Red Irish Ale, Miller Genuine Draft, Kronenbourg 1664, Foster’s Lager, Carling Lager, San Miguel and Scrumpy Jack Cider.
The company is led by chief executive Alf Smiddy, who has been in charge of the group since 1992.
Mr Smiddy, a qualified accountant, knows the business well and is a director of the parent company Scottish & Newcastle.
He is acknowledged as a tough competitor and initiated a cut-price campaign on Beamish stout in the early 1990s that re-established the dark beer as a viable beer in the Irish market.
Its share today is 8% of a falling market.
