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2. Adnam's In   4. New Horizons

1. : Lacon's Out

Whitbread's Brewery arrived locally in strength,
as a result of taking over Lacon's Brewery in
Great Yarmouth in November 1965.

Norwich pubs in their portfolio have been dated
as transferring in 1966.
22 houses were transferred, although by the
1984 Survey three had already been disposed of.

2. : Adnam's In

Whitbread's finally sold their breweries and pubs/bars
in 2001, to concentrate elsewhere. Yet they were
losing interest long before that, and it could have been
as early as 1990 that Adnam's succeeded in acquiring
seven Norwich pubs.

But see para. 3 below for the odd situation at
the St. Andrew's Tavern, by June 1989.

The (single??) transfer date seems to have been -

  • after the survey for the 1991 Pub Guide and
  • before May 1996, when the Champion
    became a free house.
The latter date rests on the strong presumption
that all 7 pubs were acquired en bloc. 		 

3. : Clearing Up

By the advent of the New Millennium, the rest of the
Whitbread tied-estate had been dissipated as follows :-
  • to Adnam's -  1 extra ( St. Andrew's Tavern )
      making 8 in all;
  • to local Suffolk rivals Greene King -  four
      (starting in 1984);
  • to various other breweries or "PubCos" -  six;
  • to free houses -  four;
  • closed or demolished earlier -  four;
  • still uncertain ownership -  two.
As the total is 28 (vide 22 in 1966) this shows some
accretions to Whitbread - mainly in the 16 or so years
since 1984; which are not at all surprising.

4. : New Horizons

Although it is of fairly peripheral interest to present-day
Norwich pub-goers, the Whitbread Group are proud of
being the "leading hospitality company" in the country.

They claim to have ditched all their pubs and bars,
but they still have interests in some aspects of the
licensed trade via :-

  • Premier Travel Inns;
  • "Brewers' Fayre" (or Brewsters' ?) houses;
  • Beefeater establishments.
Their other main activities are Costa Coffee and
David Lloyd Leisure, the latter operating health
and fitness clubs.
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