£1 billion and counting: How Marston's rose to top of the beer business

The Wolverhampton-based group has just revealed turnover of more than £1 billion – double the figure it recorded in 2002, just after a life-and-death struggle that could have seen its break-up.

It had to fight off a hostile takeover attempt by a group called Pubmaster. It won the battle, but that led to a transformation in the old Wolverhampton & Dudley Breweries. It was renamed Marston’s, after the Burton upon Trent brewery where it makes best seller Pedigree, and finance chief Ralph Findlay was appointed chief executive.

And Mr Findlay has steered the dramatic growth in the business over the last 16 years as Marston’s acquired a string of breweries and famous beers, sold off loss-making old pubs and built an estate of new pub-restaurants that chimed with the public’s growing desire to go out and eat without breaking the bank.

It hasn’t always been a smooth ride. Many have been upset at the loss of traditional pubs, sold to become supermarkets or knocked down for housing.

Others claim that beloved beers now brewed by Marston’s don’t taste the same as they used to – although Marston’s Beer Company boss and former head brewer Richard Westwood will argue otherwise with some passion.

But it is hard to argue with the hard business sense of Marston’s strategy under Mr Findlay and his team. Or their faith in their industry.

At a time when doom-mongers were predicting a terminal decline in demand for British beer, Marston’s bought breweries and made a point of its quality ales. A decade ago they were the only company in the UK that was building pubs.

The latest recording-breaking figures are no flash in the pan. They are the result of a careful strategy. Alongside that £1bn turnover figure is a £100 million pre-tax profit. Average profit at its pubs has continued to rise.

The number of new pubs has slowed, down to 15 planned next year, but alongside that Marston’s is building half a dozen of its new Lodge hotels, including its biggest ever, a 100-bedroom development in Ebbsfleet. That still means around 1,200 new jobs nationwide next year.

Commenting on the latest set of annual figures yesterday, Mr Findlay said: “We have achieved strong revenue growth and higher earnings, despite increasing employment and property costs.

“Our business has been transformed in recent years with a significant improvement in the quality of both our pub and beer businesses. While political and economic uncertainty is likely to continue, we remain confident that our proposition founded on providing great customer experiences, the very best service and value for money, leaves Marston’s positioned to deliver further growth in the year ahead.”

He puts the company’s success down to its premium range of beers – from Black Country favourite Banks’s to Marstons Pedigree, Hobgoblin and now McEwan’s and Bombardier thanks to this summer’s £55m takeover of its sixth brewery, Charles Wells – and the quality of its pubs: “Around 60 per cent of our food pubs were built in the last 10 years.

“We have kept up with trends in the dining market with our pizza kitchen, rotisserie chicken and grills.

“Also we have built new pubs serving food in places where a lot of the competition doesn’t go. So we build in towns across the UK which are underserved by the major dining operators.”

The group opened 19 pubs and bars in the quarter and bought another nine with average profit per pub up two per cent. It also opened eight lodges, taking the Marston’s estate to more than 1,250 rooms.

The expertise of its supply chain operation – based at its Chapel Ash headquarters where it employs around 1,000 people, has seen it secure three significant distribution deals this year to supply another 1,700 pubs. Marston’s now employs around 14,500, has a national estate of 1,568 pubs and six breweries.

And its not stopping: in the first seven weeks of the current financial year Marston’s has seen like-for-like sales continuing to grow.