Tooth and Co. was the major brewer of beer in New South Wales, Australia. The company owned a large brewery on Broadway in Sydney from 1835 until 1985, known as the Kent Brewery. It was historically one of Australia’s oldest companies, having been established as a partnership in 1835 and listed on the then Sydney Stock Exchange in July 1961.
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John Tooth emigrated to Australia in the early 1830s, traded for a time as a general merchant, and then in 1835, with a his brother-in-law, John Newnham, opened a brewery in Sydney. He named the brewery Kent Brewery.[1] It was incorporated as a company in 1888.
The Tooth family had interests in banking, agriculture and real estate and could afford to support their brewing operations through the turbulent times of the late 19th Century, enabling the brewer to become the dominant maker of beer into the 20th Century. Tooth's major asset was Kent Brewery, although Tooth had numerous other assets; it owned Blue Bow Cordials (which later produced Blue Bow Lemonade), it acquired the Maltings at Mittagong in 1905 [2], Maltings at Carlton Street, Sydney, the Reschs Waverley Brewery in 1921 [3], numerous hotels and considerable land. Tooth owned the New South Wales franchise of Hungry Jacks, although it failed to exploit the franchise. It also owned the d'Albora Marina. For a short period from 1978 it also owned the Courage Brewery in Victoria, and a brewery at Tuncester, near Lismore New South Wales. For a period it owned Penfolds Wines, and Penfolds' subsidiary, the Koala Motel Chain. The Tooth family is also famous for building the 'Swifts' mansion at Darling Point in Sydney.[4]
Kent Brewery was built on Blackwattle Creek in 1835. The original Tooth and Co produced many beers, of which only two remain on the market - KB Lager and Kent Old Brown. Kent brewery was substantially damaged by a fire in about 1900. In 1921, Tooth and Co. took over Reschs Ltd and their "Waverley" brewery on South Dowling Street in Redfern. Acquisition was conditional that Tooth would not change the original recipe for Reschs Beer. Tooth later made an unsuccessful attempt to acquire the Millers Brewery (Owned by trucking magnate RW Miller), located at Taverner's Hill in Sydney. In 1967, Millers Brewery was sold to rivals, Tooheys Ltd.[5]
Tooth was losing business to the takeaway packaged beer market, and established Bottle-Mart, whose original spokesman was the comedian Spike Milligan. In 1978, Tooth constructed a brewery at Lismore, NSW.
Tooth relied primarily on the pub industry, however clubs were becoming increasingly important as a liquor outlet. The clubs were supplied by Courage Brewery in Victoria, which meant that Tooth was losing ground. In 1978, Tooth acquired the Courage Brewery in Victoria, signifying a major move into the Victorian market.[6]
The logo and trademark of Tooth and Co. was based on the Battle Standard of two Saxon Chiefs, Hengist (stallion) and Horsa (horse) who invaded Britain more than 1,400 years ago. (Hengis and Horsa’s expeditionary force of Saxons, Angles and Jutes from Germany landed at Ebbsfleet, Kent in 449 AD. On the crowning of Hengist’s son, Eric, as the first King of Kent, a white horse, the standard of the ancient Saxons, became the emblem of Kent. It was adopted in more modern times as the Ensign of Kentish Units in the British Army.) John Tooth, who was born in Kent made the White Horse Rampant his company’s trademark. In the early 1970s, in an apparent attempt to modernise the image of the company, the (image of the) White Horse Rampant had been secretly gelded. The more observant staff of the company noticed the change, and saw it as a portent of things to come. Subsequently, the trademark was changed, with some fanfare, to a stylised (but still sterile) horse head, as shown on the label shown above. A more recent annual report (Annual Report 1995) showed both the gelding, and a knight, poorly located on the corner of a chess board.
Tooth offered numerous staff benefits. The company offered a Ten Pound marriage bonus to those employees getting married while in the company’s service. Leave was four weeks per year, with 50% loading. Although there was no formal superannuation available, employees retiring from the company “would be provided for” on confidential terms. There was a staff social club coordinated by Kent Brewery. Following restructuring circa 1975, Tooth had a gymnasium (at Kent Brewery), “Wet” canteen (Kent and Waverley Breweries) a (non-technical) reading room/library. The social club also purchased an old fishing boat, sponsored by the company. The social club published a magazine called Tooth Topics. Copies are still in circulation and may contain information which could be of use to researchers.
Employees had a generous ration of beer at morning tea (called the beer break), lunch, afternoon tea and when they clocked off. Some of the trade supervisors were able to float between bars during the day, eventually leading to a permanent state of inebriation. The brewery had several bars, although plant operators could tap a leaking cask for their own enjoyment. The cask was called the honeypot. Tooth unsuccessfully sought a ruling from the Industrial Relations Commission, that the honeypot would be banned. The ruling was that a precedent had been set. Subsequently an inebriated operator, while travelling home, was hit by a train. Tooth successfully appealed the IRC decision. The honeypot was banned. Tooth would issue plastic tokens, allowing the employee to take home one carton of beer, per week, for his private enjoyment. That arrangement ended with CUB.
In an apparent contradiction, Tooth would not tolerate drunkenness among its staff. Depending on perceived value to the company, alcoholism could either lead to summary dismissal, or to a drying out period at a clinic.
Before 1974, Tooth relied on a handshake agreement with its interstate rivals that they would not intrude in each other's territories. Further, Tooth's hotels were tied, that is, the licencee was bound to market Tooth Beers. Both of these practices would be outlawed under the Commonwealth Trade Practices Act in 1974. Tooth appointed McKinsey and Company, a management consultant firm, to review its procedures. The McKinsey review was headed by Fred Hilmer, a strong advocate of free competition. Following the review, Tooth made a number of structural changes. McKinsey generally followed the Harvard school of thought that the company should use external consultants for its non-core activities (compare the management style of Warwick Fairfax, FXJ, between 1987 and 1990). Between 1975 and 1981, Tooth made a number of smaller acquisitions, in an apparent attempt to reduce its dependence on breweries and the tied hotels.
Tooth usually relied on cash flow to make acquisitions, but the same practice meant that the company would be vulnerable to predators. In 1975, Tooth reconstructed brewing facilities at Irving Street, Sydney. The reconstruction was funded from cashflow. Between 1976 and 1982, Tooth and Co. owned Penfolds winery. As indication of the conservative financial status of Tooth, the acquisition was funded by tightening credit terms with the hoteliers from 90 days down to 30 days. For information, Penfolds was later acquired by Southcorp Wines, which was subsequently acquired by the Foster's Group. Between 1975 and 1980, Tooth made numerous acquisitions, two of which were Wright-Heaton Pty Ltd (a catering firm), and Budge Refrigeration. At the time Tooth considered itself as being in the Leisure Industry.
Tooth saw the weakness in its financial position, and took some action to avert being a takeover target. It attempted a reverse takeover of LJ Hooker Ltd, so as to acquire Hooker's expertise in managing the land holdings. The takeover failed. In 1981, a controlling interest in Tooth and Co. Ltd was acquired by David Jones (Properties) Pty Ltd, then a division of the Adelaide Steamship Company (a corporate raider and asset stripper.) The Adelaide Steamship Company's acquisitions were funded by huge borrowings, and the AdSteam Group had high debt levels (gearing). With the onset of the recession of the early 1990s, interest rates rose. Under the pressure of its debt, AdSteam was forced to liquidate all tangible assets, although its bankers had agreed to an orderly sale. The disposal started in 1991, and concluded on 24 December 1999 when AdSteam, under its new name Residual Assco Group Ltd, was delisted. Subsequently, AdSteam in 1983 sold the brewing interests to Carlton and United Brewery (CUB).[7] Victoria Bitter, Fosters, Cascade Light and Stirling Light were then brewed at Kent Brewery.
With the disposal of assets, various member companies of the AdSteam group were renamed. David Jones was renamed DJL Ltd prior to the relisting of the Department Stores as David Jones in 1995. The Adelaide Steamship Company was renamed Residual Assco prior to the listing of AdSteam Marine in 1997. The owners of Dextran, and hence IEL, were now called Residual Assco, DJL and Tooth, and still share the tax liability. Pending the outcome of the taxation ruling, the three companies remain in limbo. The matter continues to grind on in the courts; in December 2007 IEL were given leave to appeal the ATO ruling.[8]
Tooth, as a listed company, had to publish an annual report. Each year the three companies went through the formality of an Annual General Meeting. (See, for example, AGM 8 November 2006). The meeting in regard to the three worthless companies takes about twenty minutes. The minutes of the meeting are presented in a plain form, in a manner suggesting three witches about a cauldron in a darkened room. On this basis, analysts and the press have named the three companies, (Residual Assco, DJL, and Tooth), the three ugly sisters.[9]
Tooth and Co. was delisted from the ASX in 2010.
In early 2005, CUB closed the massive Kent Brewery, with all CUB beers in NSW now sourced from Queensland and Victoria. The brewery site was demolished and is undergoing redevelopment into housing, with the exception of a heritage chimney and a gate. The gate still bears the trademark of Invicta the rampant stallion.
Staff from the Kent and Waverley breweries founded several small boutique breweries: Dr Charles "Chuck" Hahn, who was production manager at Tooth, founded the Hahn Brewery in Pyrmont Bridge Road, Pyrmont. A syndicate of brewers founded the Pumphouse Brewery in Darling Harbour. The two fledgling breweries were physically close and shared technology. A third brewery was established at Old Sydney Town near Gosford. Hahn was subsequently acquired by Lion Nathan Ltd,[10] and the Pumphouse brewery site has been redeveloped.
The Maltings at Carlton Street, Sydney, and at Mittagong were managed by three brothers Ernest, Clarrie and Arthur Jones. Their Father Henry was also the original manager of the Maltings from 1905 until his death in 1928. The Jones family had a combined service to Tooth and Co of well over 150 years. Mittagong Maltings had a considerable land holding, although much of the land was sold for a peppercorn to an adjacent girls school. Mittagong Maltings had three separate buildings, one destroyed by a fire in 1965. The other two are now abandoned, having closed in 1981.[11]. The Mittagong Maltings is in a state of disrepair and has been considerably vandalised. Waverley Brewery and the Blue Bow site have been redeveloped as housing.
The Lismore Brewery did commence production, and was intended to cover distribution of regions North of Tooheys Grafton Brewery. But as soon as production commenced, Tooheys acquired Castlemaine XXXX brewery, so the distribution potential for a brewery at Lismore became locked in. Tooheys and Castlemaine are now part of the Lion Nathan Brewing group.
Tooth established and maintained a comprehensive brewing museum at its Kent Brewery. The contents of the museum have since been donated to the Powerhouse Museum, located in Harris Street Ultimo. Part of the contents are now on permanent display at the Powerhouse Museum.
A feature of Tooth and Co. was the painting of large pub paintings in the 1930s and 1940s, unique to NSW. These pub paintings sought to advertise beer by associating it with sport, health and cultural sophistication. Tooth and Co. owned hundreds of pubs throughout NSW at the time and sought to decorate many with these paintings. Many of these have now disappeared from pub walls and are highly sought as souvenirs of the era.