Franconian Beer Message Board

Brauerei Hertlein, Staffelbach
Posted by Barry on 2017-04-11 01:46:17
Re the role of Fuller's and Taylor's: both, IMHO, had slightly different business positions but both profitted from and, to an extent, exploited, the cask ale revolution.  Fuller's and Young's were in a uniquie position when CAMRA got under way: they were both relatively small producers who hadn't modernised (i.e. gone over to keg) and, thus, were unique in the London area, which had become dominated by the large conglomerates.  As a result, they were in a good position to exploit a niche market, with sufficient footfall in an affluent area, with lots of young people who were keen to buck the trend of keg beer.  It actually made sense for them not to change their methods of production and to leave their pubs well alone.

I don't know that much about TT but it is a small family brewery and probably didn't have the capital to invest in new equipment and, for whatever, reason, avoided the takeovers of the late 1960s and 1970s - also probably because they had a sufficiently strong trading position and, like Sam Smith's, probably were just determined to remain independent.  Sadly, for various reasons, many of their contemporaries sold out, often because the family connections weakened or their trading base was too weak.