Hat-trick of deals set to make Marston's a national player

As well as paying £55 million to buy the Charles Wells brewery and its beers – Bombardier, Youngs, Courage and McEwan's – Marston's has also secured the UK right for top foreign beers brands such as Kirin Lager, Estrella Damm and Erdinger.

In separate deals, Marston's Beer Company has also won exclusive supply deals for Punch Taverns' 1,355 pubs and another 255 pubs run by Birmingham pub company Hawthorn Leisure.

It will mean up to 50 new jobs created across Marston's distribution network, and another 25 new dray lorries. On top of existing plans for 32 new lorries, it means a spend on vehicles of around £5 million.

The managing director of the Wolverhampton-based group's beer company, Richard Westwood, said the hat-trick of deals had 'cemented' Marston's reputation and "signalled our intention to become a really serious player in distribution."

"This is our biggest move since Wolverhampton & Dudley bought Marston's in 1999," he said.

"It also gives us greater access to markets in Scotland, the South East and in London."

The move also gives more room for growth in its brewing business. It's existing five breweries, including the Park Brewery home of Banks's, are operating at full capacity but the Charles Wells site at Bedford can handle up to 650,000 barrels a year.

With the addition of beers such as Scottish favourite McEwan's, Mr Westwood said Marston's now accounted for one in three of all the premium bottled ale now being drunk in the UK.

"But it's not about trophy hunting," said Mr Westwood. "What we are looking for is businesses that in the long term are going to enhance our own business, and create more shareholder value."

Mr Westwood said the distribution and delivery deals were evidence of the transformation in the way the industry now saw Marston's: "A few years back we wouldn't even have been on the pitch when it came to deals with Punch or Hawthorn.

"What has changed is the ability and reach of our people; not so much the board but the senior management team, the business development people, the teams out talking to potential customers or answering the phone. It is the high level of service they deliver that is winning these contracts."

And he said the impressive new £10million Marston's House headquarters in Chapel Ash was also playing its role in winning over potential clients: "It was originally about helping us recruit the right calibre of people, but it has also become a selling tool", he said.