Wells & Young's takes on Courage

By Nick Goodway for MailOnline
Updated: 03:46 EDT, 17 January 2007

Scottish & Newcastle is selling its Courage range of cask beers to the newly-formed Bedford brewer Wells & Young's Brewing Company.

The move signals S&N's desire to concentrate on international lager brands such as Kronenbourg 1664 and Baltika rather than real ales and to reduce its costs.

Wells & Young's was formed last year after London-based Young's closed its Wandsworth brewery and formed a joint venture with Charles Wells. Today's deal is the venture's first.

Under the deal, believed to be worth just over £10m, S&N will retain a 17% stake in the Courage brands and may provide future funding to the venture.

Wells & Young's will take over production of more than 100,000 barrels of Courage and Director's a year, taking the brewery's output above 600,000 barrels. Courage ales will be sold in Charles Wells 260 pubs as well as in the S&N estate.

S&N will continue to produce John Smith's bitter at its Tadcaster brewery in Yorkshire. Courage was founded in 1787 and first brewed at the Anchor Brewhouse near Tower Bridge.

Nigel McNally, managing director of Wells & Young's, said his company intended to invest more than £2m in Courage, which he said had had little or no marketing support from S&N over recent years.

He added: 'We regard it as a sleeping giant. The decline in volume over the years has largely been down to substitution. Where S&N can, they have substituted John Smith's for Courage. Our intent is to reawaken Courage.'