| Industry | Alcoholic beverage |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1824 |
| Founder(s) | 1824-1959: Usher family 1960-1971: Watney Mann 1972-1989: Grand Metropolitan 1990-2004: Independent |
| Defunct | 2004, purchased by Punch Taverns |
| Headquarters | Trowbridge, Wiltshire, England |
| Area served | Southwest |
| Key people | Thomas Usher |
| Products | Beer |
| References: Ushers beers now brewed by Wychwood Brewery | |
Ushers of Trowbridge was a brewery located in Trowbridge, Wiltshire.
In 1824, Thomas Usher and his wife Hannah acquired a small brewery in Back Street, Trowbridge, renaming it Usher's Wiltshire Brewery.[1] In 1844, the couples three sons joined the partnership, allowing the parents to retire in 1869. After this, the beers and brand developed a loyal following, facilitating a quick expansion of the company through the 19th century. In 1887, the partnership took over Fanshaw & Palmer of Donnington, Berkshire. This resulted in 1889 of the registration of Usher's Wiltshire Brewery Ltd to combine the two organisations.[1] From its date of formation to World War II, the company acquired some 15 independent breweries and their associated public house premises.[1]
Post World War II, the company acquired Conigre House and gardens in Trowbridge, then the home of the local Liberal Club, enabling it to doubled the scale of its brewery and bottling plant.[2]
Having dropped the apostrophe from its registered name in 1951,[1] in 1960 the company agreed to be merged with the acquisitive Watney Mann. The assets included the brewery sites in both London (soon closed) and Trowbridge, together with 900 pubs.[1] In 1964, the company changed its registered name to Ushers Brewers Ltd.[1] Watney Mann itself merged with Grand Metropolitan Hotels in 1972.[3]
In 1990, a management buyout occurred which created a reconstituted Ushers Brewers Ltd, together with a footprint of wholly owned smaller pubs, deemed by Grand Metropolitan to be too small or unable of redevelopment. The new company began acquiring pubs to provide a distribution network, under a holding company Innspired Pubs.
By 1999 the brewery side of the business was, in accountants speak, "not cost effective" despite running at full capacity.[4] Subjected to an unsuccessful management buyout, the Trowbridge brewery site closed in 2000. The residual pub operator company, renamed Innspired Pubs plc, was itself was bought by Punch Taverns in September 2004.[5]
The former brewery equipment was sold for £1.5M to North Korea via German broker Uwe Oehms. Peter Ward, of brewing company Thomas Hardy Brewing and Packaging bought the plant, and arranged for a team from North Korea to travel to Trowbridge to dismantle it. It now forms the core of the Taedonggang brewery, located just outside Pyongyang.[6] In 2009, its new brew Taedong River Beer made international headlines after inspiring what is thought to be North Korean television's first beer advert.[7] Punch Taverns sold the site to developers, which part demolished and then redeveloped is now the Ushers Apartments.[8]
Today, beers brewed under the Usher name are brewed by the Wychwood Brewery for Refresh UK.[4]
Beginning in 2009 the site in Trowbridge has been redeveloped. The smaller town site, previously site of the companies offices becoming a new housing development. While the larger site currently remaining clear ahead of its redevelopment into the "Brewery Quarter" of the town, including a new Sainsburys grocery store and new shops and homes due to open at an undisclosed date.
In the summer of 2010 Sainsburys opened its new store on the former Ushers site, its currently the only part of the site to have been developed, the other part remaining derelict.