The dissertation asserts that the brewing industry in England and Wales was involved in two markets, beer and property. Brewers owned the public houses and off-licences through which their beers were sold. Traditional interpretations of the industry fail to recognize the significance of this dual market involvement. The importance of the property market and brewing firms' relationship to it are key to a full understanding of the amalgamations and structural changes which occurred in the industry between 1945-1960. A general model of a dual market industry is developed. Its application to the brewing industry, and how dual market involvement altered the pattern of amalgamations from that predicted by traditional approaches, are discussed. It explains how firms' staying power in an industry may exceed that predicted by their primary market share alone and paradoxically, how some brewing firms' vulnerability to amalgamation was increased by changes in the secondary market, property. The economic environment, government policy, legislation, and changes in the beer, property and financial markets vis-a-vis the brewing industry are discussed. The characteristics which distinguish taken-over firms, and their relationship to the property market, are identified. The performance criteria (profitability, dividends, percentage earnings on equity capital, and liquidity) were not indicators of vulnerability to takeover. Merging firms were significantly larger than taken-over and independent firms, but there was no significant difference in the average estate size of the latter two. Taken-over firms had the lowest average asset value per house, indicating a limited ability to exploit fully their property assets. This suggests vulnerability to takeover was associated more with the character and use made of property than with a firm's performance. The role of the dual market and the brewers' use of their secondary market, property, to thwart or achieve amalgamation, or in pursuit of their business strategies, changed the nature of inter-firm interactions and ultimately the structure of the brewing industry. The dissertation indicates how neglect of the relationship between the brewing industry's two markets has led to an underemphasis in existing analyses of the role property played in the brewing firms' strategies, 1945-1960.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UMASS/oai:scholarworks.umass.edu:dissertations-9072 |
| Date | 01 January 1995 |
| Creators | Dean, Alison |
| Publisher | ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst |
| Source Sets | University of Massachusetts, Amherst |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Source | Doctoral Dissertations Available from Proquest |
Page generated in 0.002 seconds