History
Joseph Holt, the son of a weaver, was born in 1813 in Unsworth, a textile village north of Manchester. He began work in Manchester as a carter in Harrison's Strangeways Brewery. In 1849 he married Catherine Parry, who helped him finance a small brewery behind a pub on Oak Street, Manchester.
In 1860, he purchased the current brewery site on Empire Street, Cheetham. His reputation in Manchester endures; in 2007, readers of the Manchester Evening News voted him "People's Champion" in the "Greatest ever Business Leaders" awards. In 1882, Joseph passed control of the breweries to his son Edward, by which time he had established a chain of 20 public houses; he became Sir Edward Holt and Lord Mayor of Manchester in 1908. Edward died in 1928 and the company was passed to his son, Edward; it is still in the hands of the same family. For more than thirty years, Peter Kershaw, a former rackets and real tennis champion and a notoriously frugal man, was chairman of the brewery. His son, Richard Kershaw, the great grandson of the original founder, joined him on the board in 1980 and, since the death of his father in 2000, is the Chief Executive.
There are 127 Holt's pubs in Greater Manchester.
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