Intervention in the Modern UK Brewing Industry [Hardcover]

This is the story of the radical intervention carried out by the Thatcher administration in response to 1986-89 Monopolies and Mergers Commission inquiry into brewing. It describes the creation of big brewers, the official investigations into what many saw as an uncompetitive structure and?the damaging consequences for consumers and licensees.The 'Big Six' Brewers and the Early Investigations Milestones on the Road to a Monopoly Reference The State of Affairs in 1985 The OFT Prepares its Case The Conduct of the Inquiry The MMC Receives the Evidence Radical Change Proposed Mixed Reactions to the Report The Government Confronts the Recommendations The Beer Orders Emerge Complying with the Orders Four More Reviews The Big Brewers Fall into Foreign Hands The Regionals React Pub Companies and Licensees Prices and Choice The Beer Market The Beer Orders are Revoked Pubcos Move Centre Stage Summary and Conclusions What If?

' This book is a meticulously researched and fluently written account of an astonishing period in the history of its subject industry. It's as enjoyable a read as it is shocking. I urge Parliamentarians and civil servants to read it. It describes the perils of misconceived regulation, however well intended, and the damage that can be done to the interests of individuals and businesses through its unintended consequences. Although the authors' case study is the beer and pub industry, the lessons apply across the industrial spectrum and beyond'.

-Robert Humphreys, Honorary Secretary, the All Party Parliamentary Beer Group.

In the late 1980s many felt that the UK brewing and pub businesses were more dynamic and offering more choice both as to product and retail outlet than almost any other comparable businesses in the world. The constant governmental interventions into the brewing industry, as they were collectively known, culminating in the Beer Orders of the early 1990s, had a dramatic effect on the UK industry slC'