| Type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Alcoholic beverage |
| Founded | 1822 |
| Founder(s) | Joshua Tetley |
| Headquarters | Leeds, England |
| Area served | UK |
| Key people | Jørgen Buhl Rasmussen (President and CEO), Povl Krogsgaard-Larsen (Chairman) |
| Products | Beer |
| Owner(s) | Carlsberg Group |
| Website | http://www.dontdothingsbyhalf.com/ |
Tetley's was a brewery founded in 1822 by Joshua Tetley in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England which operated for 189 years until it was closed in June 2011.[1] The brewery was owned by the Carlsberg Group and produced a range of beers, including Tetley's Bitter, and was the world's largest producer of cask ale.[2] Tetley's is among the ten highest selling beer brands in the United Kingdom, but nevertheless, sales in 2010 were less than half of those in 2004.[3]
With the closure of the brewery, production of Tetley Smoothflow was transferred to MolsonCoors' Tadcaster plant, Tetley cask products were contracted to Marstons' Wolverhampton plant and Tetley keg products contracted to Camerons.[4] All other products such as Skol were transferred to Carlsberg's Northampton plant.[5]
The brewery was often known as "Leeds Brewery", and should not be confused with a microbrewery of that name which opened in 2007.[6]
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The brewery was founded in 1822 by Joshua Tetley in Leeds, leasing an existing brewery located in Salem Place from William Sykes for £400, . Tetley's grew to become a large integrated regional brewery company with a number of tied public houses.
By 1860 Tetley was the largest brewery in the North of England.[7] In 1875 Tetley's brewed 171,500 barrels of beer.[8]
Tetley’s bought its first two pubs in 1890. Only one remains today, The Fleece in Farsley. The other, the Duke William, which was in Tetley’s yard, was "unceremoniously demolished" by Carlsberg in 2002.[9]
In 1892, the company went public to raise money for a bottling operation and was valued at £572,848.[10]
In 1911, Tetley's challenged escape artist Harry Houdini to escape from a padlocked metal cask of ale. Houdini accepted this challenge; however, it proved too much for him and he had to be rescued from the cask.[11]
In 1932 the Market Tavern, next to Leeds' Kirkgate market was leased by Leeds City Council to Tetley’s for £550 a year. The council had higher offers from two other breweries, but opted for Tetley’s “because it sells the most popular brew in the view of the Corporation”.[12]
At its peak during the 1960s, Tetley owned over 1000 tied houses in Yorkshire alone, and 2000 across the country.[13][14] At its height, the brewery employed over 1000 workers.[15]
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.[16]
By 1996, sales of Tetley Bitter were overtaken by sales of John Smith's, and the product has retained the number two position ever since.[17] This is largely attributed to Tetley's ineffective marketing campaigns.[16]
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.[18]
In 2006, Tetley's sold 185 million pints of beer in pubs. This would fill 42 Olympic-sized swimming pools.[11] In the same year, the brewery's famous dray horses were retired.[19] They had made deliveries to pubs around Leeds.
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.[20] The final brew took place on 24 May 2011, Lager production was transferred to Northampton. Leeds will retain a Tetley's distribution centre at Tingley.
The company is now called Carlsberg UK Limited and is a part of Carlsberg AS group.
The original brewery was opened on the current site in 1822. Parts of the original buildings still stand and extensions have been built as late as 2006.
The brewery is situated on the south banks of the River Aire near Crown Point, Hunslet and Clarence Dock. The adjacent Yorkshire Chemical works has recently been demolished and much of the former land is used by the brewery for storage. The Brewery opened a museum on 19 March 1994.[21][22] 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.[23] The closure of the brewery by Carlsberg was announced on 5 November 2008, with the brewery expected to be shut by 2011. Carlsberg will try to redeploy staff throughout the group. Production of Tetley beer will be moved to Northampton.[24]
The brewery produces around 200 million pints of Tetley's every year. In addition to this brewery there is a distribution centre in nearby Tingley. There are no plans to close this depot.
Since the closure of the Yorkshire Chemical Works adjacent to the brewery, some of the land has been used for storage by Tetley's. It has been speculated whether the two sites will be redeveloped together.
The Brewery currently stands on the largest site it has ever stood on, after over 180 years of expansion. In 1906 the brewery stood on a fraction of its current site between Brook Street, Hunslet Road (this part now being known as Hunslet Lane), Crown Point Road and Waterloo Street. Many smaller streets in the vicinity have since disappeared under the ever extending brewery.[25]
Several MPs in Leeds have called for a demerger between Tetley's and Carlsberg or a management buyout to save the brewery from closure. It has been suggested that the brewery could be leased to independent brewers, should it become unused. The Yorkshire Evening Post estimated a value of £4–£5 million per acre for the site.
Tetleys ran many public houses across the UK with a high concentration in Yorkshire. Due to competition laws the pubs have since been sold although some still display the Tetley's logo. Spirit Group and Festival Ales run many former Tetley's pubs.
Throughout the 1960s and 1970s Tetley's invested in many new estate pubs in Leeds such as The Londoner in Little London, The Dalesman in Moor Grange and the Eyrie in Holt Park. Towns such as Garforth and Wetherby show a cross over between pubs traditionally run by Leeds based Tetley's and Tadcaster based John Smith's, being as the towns are approximately equidistant between the two breweries.
The Leeds brewery produced a wide range of products, including cask ale, keg ale, keg lager, bottled lager and canned (widget) ale and lager. The main products were Tetley's Cask, Tetley's Smoothflow and Tetley's Mild.
Although Tetley's primarily sell their products within the United Kingdom, the brand has a healthy export markets. Many export markets grew in countries such as Spain, Australia and Thailand with high levels of British tourists and expatriates. The brand enjoys a strong export market in the US as 'Tetley's English Ale'.[26][27]
Cask - Tetley's hand pulled ale served in most Tetley's pubs. This beverage is served at cellar temperature. This is perhaps considered to be Tetley's core product, although the popularity of Smoothflow in recent years may challenge this. A.B.V 3.8%
Smoothflow - Tetley's keg ale served in most Tetley's pubs, as well as many sports grounds and nightclubs. This beverage is chilled to 8 degrees Celsius.[28] Export versions of Tetley's are usually a variation of Smoothflow. A.B.V 3.6%
Mild - One of the brands of mild still widely available, not all Tetley's pubs will serve this and it is generally reserved for sale in more specialist bars. A.B.V 3.3% Carlsberg brew the Tetley's Mild in both light and dark forms although the dark mild is to be discontinued.
Imperial - Originally created for the Teesside market, and at one point was advertised as "Teeside's favourite pint". It was launched nationally as a premium 4.3% cask ale in 2002. It used three separate yeasts and had eight months of development, but the variant has since been withdrawn.[29] It continues as a pasteurised ale in kegs.
About 24,000 hectolitres of Tetley's Milds and Imperial were sold in 2010.[30]
Double Diamond Burton Ale was a brand of British ale brewed from 1876 to 2003. During the 1970s it was advertised heavily by Ind Coope, especially on TV, with the jingle: "A Double Diamond works wonders, works wonders, works wonders. A Double Diamond works wonders, so drink some today!" Carlsberg UK discontinued general sales of the brand in April 2003, though a small amount continued to be sold in bottles for some months.[31] Carlsberg UK still sells a Burton Ale seasonally in its Draught Cask series but under the Ind Coope brand, not as Double Diamond.
Skol is a brand of British lager brewed by Tetley's. The lager is no longer sold from tap, but is still available from a can. The lager is relatively weak at 3.0%ABV and is one of the cheapest branded lagers. The product is usually sold in crates of 24x440 ml can.
In 2000 Tetley's dropped its traditional huntsman logo, due to growing anti-hunt feelings in the UK. In March 2010 the huntsman was used again for the first time in Tetley's advertising in ten years.
In 2006 Tetley's changed its slogan from 'Smoothly Does It' to its current slogan of 'Don't Do Things By Halves', and launched a £5 million television advertising campaign.[32]
Tetley's along with John Player became rugby league football's first ever sponsors for the 1971-72 season.[33] For many years Tetley sponsored Leeds RLFC; they then sponsored their successor Leeds Rhinos from their formation until 2005. Tetley's also sponsored the Rugby League Super League from 2000 until 2004. Tetley's remain a major sponsor at Leeds Rhinos and are the official beer of most Super League clubs. Tetley's also sponsor the stadium of Dewsbury Rams which under a sponsorship deal is known as the Tetley's Stadium. Tetley's is also involved in Rugby Union, although less prominently, and has a contract with England Rugby Player Martin Johnson.
Following a break for a number of years from television advertising, Tetley returned to the screens in October 2010 as part of an 18 month sponsorship deal with ITV4.[34] This forms a part of the £5 million that Carlsberg intend to invest into the brand over the coming years.
Tetley's make use of billboards for a lot of their advertising, particularly across Leeds. Hoardings at the side of sports pitches are used, and such have often been rented at Elland Road and the Headingley Carnegie Stadium (both on the Leeds Rhinos side and the Yorkshire County Cricket Club side. Tetley's also advertise in the matchday programmes of Leeds United, Leeds Rhinos, Leeds Carnegie and Yorkshire County Cricket Club. It is unclear whether this will continue, should the brand relocate to Northampton.
On 5 November 2008, Carlsberg UK announced they intended to close the plant in 2011, moving production to Northampton, owing to the falling demand for beer and lager products in the UK. The move was first reported on BBC Radio Leeds. The company was criticised for choosing to announce the closure the day after Barack Obama was elected US president to ensure the news would not get any significant coverage in the British national press, leaving only Look North the Yorkshire Evening Post, Calendar and BBC Radio Leeds to cover it locally.