Tetley's Bitter - History

History

The Tetley family's links with the beer industry go back to the 1740s when William Tetley was described as a maltster in Armley, near Leeds. His son William expanded the business, which in turn was passed to his son Joshua. In 1822, Joshua leased a brewery in Salem Place, Hunslet for £400. Joshua Tetley and Son was created in 1839 when Joshua made his son, Francis William, a partner. Construction of a new brewery began in 1852. Joshua died in 1859, leaving the business to Francis, who took on a his brother in law, Charles Ryder, as a partner. By 1860 Tetley was the largest brewery in the North of England and by 1864 Joshua Tetley and Son were starting an ambitious building scheme. Although Tetley mostly brewed mild throughout the nineteenth century, it also began to brew pale ale, which was gaining in popularity. By 1875, annual beer production had reached 171,500 barrels. Tetley bought its first two public houses in 1890. Only one remains today, The Fleece in Farsley, Leeds. The other, the Duke William, which was in Tetley’s yard, was "unceremoniously demolished" by Carlsberg in 2002. In 1897, the company went public to raise money for a bottling operation and was valued at £572,848.

In 1931, the art deco Tetley headquarters building was erected. In 1932 the Market Tavern, located next to the Leeds Kirkgate Market, was leased by Leeds City Council to Tetley's for £550 a year. The council had received higher bids from two other breweries, but opted for the Tetley offer as "it sells the most popular brew in the view of the Corporation". Tetley's position as Leeds' largest brewer was confirmed in 1960 when it announced a takeover of Leeds' Melbourne Brewery. That same year they merged with Walkers of Warrington to form Tetley Walker. Tetley Walker owned over one thousand tied houses in Yorkshire alone and a further two thousand outside the county. In 1961 Tetley merged with Ind Coope and Ansells to form Allied Breweries, then the world's largest brewing conglomerate. At its height in the 1960s the brewery employed over a thousand workers. By the 1970s half of Leeds' pubs were owned by Tetley. In 1978 Allied merged with J. Lyons to form Allied Lyons.

During the 1980s Tetley benefited from the increase in sales of cask ale. At its peak Tetley's was Britain's largest cask ale brewery. An impartial customer survey in the 1980s concluded that Tetley had achieved an almost irrational level of customer support, particularly in West Yorkshire, in part because of traditional loyalty, partly because of highly effective television campaigns such as the Tetley Bittermen, and also because of a consistently high quality product.

In 1993 Allied Lyons sold a 50 per cent stake in the company to the Danish brewer Carlsberg. The brewery opened a museum on 19 March 1994. The attraction proved popular; however, redevelopment of the land surrounding the brewery led to the attraction's closure on 7 April 2000. The building is now bars and restaurants. By 1996, sales of Tetley Bitter were overtaken by sales of John Smith's, and the product has retained the number two ale position ever since. This is largely attributed to Tetley's ineffective marketing campaigns. In 1998 Tetley's was taken over by Carlsberg, who had previously held a 50 per cent stake in the business. In 2004 Tetley was dropped from the Carlsberg-Tetley name. The company is now called Carlsberg UK Limited and is a part of Carlsberg AS group. In 2006, Tetley's sold 185 million pints of beer in pubs. In the same year, the brewery's dray horses, which had made beer deliveries to pubs around Leeds, were retired.

The brewery's closure was announced in 2008. Darran Britton, Carlsberg UK marketing director, defended the closure, saying "People are drinking less. Five pubs a day are closing. This is not about the workforce. It is an old brewery and the one in Northampton is bigger and more modern." In December 2010 production of Tetley's cask products was transferred to Banks's brewery in Wolverhampton. Tetley Smoothflow will be brewed by Coors in Tadcaster and Tetley keg Dark Mild, Mild and Imperial will be brewed by Cameron's of Hartlepool. The final brew took place on 22 February 2011. Lager production was transferred to Northampton. Despite protests that Tetley Cask brewed in Wolverhampton would taste different, the new beer has been greeted with a warm reception.