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Demetris Vrontis: Graduate Business School, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK
Claudio Vignali: Department of Retailing and Marketing, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester UK
Bass plc - historical background
Bass had been known until 1979 as Bass Charrington and was a product of the brewery mergers which were fashionable in the 1960s. The basic lineage was the United Breweries of Northern England, Tennents in Scotland, Charrington & Co. in the South-East, Bass Ratcliff & Gretton of Burton-on-Trent and Mitchells and Butlers based in the West Midlands.
Bass did not pursue a policy of automatically closing down all its local and smaller regional breweries, although some (such as Atkinsons) had been closed prior to the creation of Bass. It did however rationalise the sourcing of its products to increase throughputs of brands it intended to develop nationally; most noticeably, Carling Black Label. Bass' early policy was to use the Tennents brand in Scotland, Bass as a near-nationally available traditional bitter, Carling as its main lager brand and Worthington as a nationally available keg beer.
Under the chairmanship of Sir Derek Palman, the business concentrated on consolidating its brewing activities together with careful diversification. By 1970 it could claim 25 percent market share and, as a result, had to concentrate on organic growth because of the interest it was attracting from the Monopolies and Mergers Commission. In the early 1970s a large group purpose-built brewery was commissioned at Runcorn in Cheshire. When it opened in 1974, it led to the closure of small breweries in the London area. However in 1978 Bass had forecast that by 1982, its existing brewing capacity would be fully utilised: with this in mind, further capacity was added in 1979 when Bass purchased Alton brewery, with its annual capacity of one million barrels, from Harp Lager. In addition Bass re-invested heavily in modernising its older plants such as Burton-on-Trent, and Cape Hill, Birmingham. However, during this period, unlike competitors who pursued a policy of building fewer but much larger breweries, Bass retained 13 breweries, believing that locally and regionally based ales were best brewed and marketed on a local basis.
In 1998, Bass was a UK leading leisure group operating in hotels, leisure retailing and branded drinks. Across these three business areas and in...