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Last Updated:
Apr 24, 2009 - 5:31:05 PM |
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Beamish and Crawford's brewery Photo: www.cork-guide.ie |
Cork's Beamish and Crawford brewery is to close with 120 job losses and end operations that began on the current site in 1650.
Heineken Ireland on Thursday announced that it is to close its Beamish & Crawford brewery in Cork in March 2009.
The decision to transfer production operations to one site at Heineken Ireland’s Leitrim Street brewery in Cork, where Murphy's Stout has been brewed since 1856, follows a review of both individual brewing operations with particular focus on capacity, expansion capability and future investment. According to Heineken, this, combined with the high costs of operating two breweries in the city, difficulties associated with expansion at the Beamish & Crawford facility and excess brewing capacity at Heineken Ireland, makes the future of the Beamish & Crawford plant unsustainable.
As a result of the integration of administrative and commercial activities, up to 40 employees from Beamish & Crawford will transfer to Heineken Ireland and it is anticipated that approximately 120 personnel will be made redundant.
Commenting, Mr. Gerrit van Loo, Managing Director, Heineken Ireland said: “This has been the most difficult decision we have had to make since we began operations here in 1983 when Heineken acquired Murphy Brewery. We have genuinely made every effort to identify as many employment opportunities as possible for Beamish staff. However, retaining two breweries is not sustainable and the loss of so many jobs remains a sad but unavoidable outcome. Over recent months I have witnessed at first hand the very positive and professional approach by Beamish & Crawford personnel to the merger process. I regret the impact of today’s announcement for them and for their families and I thank them for their commitment and hard work over the years.”
“We will do all we can to minimize the impact on people and the community. We have agreed comprehensive severance terms with the trade unions, we will provide outplacement support, including career counseling, job search training and pension advice to all departing staff.”
This announcement follows the unconditional approval by the Irish Competition Authority on 3 October 2008, to proceed with the acquisition of Beamish & Crawford by Heineken.
The two operations fell under the same ownership when the Dutch group Heineken NV and Danish Carlsberg divided up Beamish's parent Scottish Newcastle in a €10 billion deal.
Beamish Irish Stout on tap, can be found today as far as the Bodega bar in the Pavilion shopping centre in Kuala Lumpur but Malaysia's capital has a Guinness brewery and Beamish has long played second fiddle to the creation of Arthur Guinness. The Cork brewery was believed to have become the largest in Ireland and the third largest in the United Kingdom more than a decade after Richard Henrick Beamish and Arthur Frederick Sharman Crawford in 1792, had acquired the brewery that dated from 1650, on Cranmer's Lane (now South Main Street).
In 1962, Beamish and Crawford was acquired by the Canadian brewing firm Carling-O'Keefe Ltd and Carling lager was introduced to the Irish market. In 1987, Elders IXL purchased Canadian Breweries (incorporating Carling-O'Keefe). In 1995, Elders sold the brewery to Scottish and Newcastle.
In the historic English town of Bandon (the town's most famous tourist was English "democrat" Oliver Cromwell, who overnighted there in 1649- see lower part of this page), 20 miles west of Cork City, both Beamish and Murphy's had bottling plants up until the 1970's and what was called a hooter, woke up the Beamish workers in the town at 7:55 am six days each week.
Bandon also had a significant distillery that had been doomed by American prohibition in the 1920s.
Henry Ford and Cork, Ireland
