GREENE KING NEWS ROUNDUP

Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem in Nottingham, believed to be the oldest pub in Great Britain, is one of 286 mainly rural pubs owned by Hardys & Hansons. The pub is literally carved into the sandstone under Nottingham castle.
[Wikipedia claims that nineteen other pubs have also laid claim to being Britain's oldest]

The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) is urging beer lovers to support the campaign to keep the 174 year-old Hardy & Hanson's brewery in Kimberley, Nottinghamshire open. Despite a petition signed by thousands of H&H drinkers, Greene King have announced that brewing will cease by Christmas and be moved to Bury St Edmunds. Hardys brewery was formed in 1832 and Hansons was formed in 1847, both brewers merged in 1930 to become Hardys & Hansons brewery. The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) is urging beer lovers to support the campaign to keep the brewery open. Local CAMRA branch chairman Vince Rutland told the Nottingham Evening Post: "The closure is such a shame. Although Greene King say they will continue to produce this bitter elsewhere, beer is rarely the same once it moves home because the water and other factors are different." The local Civic Society is also supporting the campaign. When the sale was originally mooted earlier this year, Camra’s chief executive, Mike Benner told The Guardian: “Hardys & Hansons will be chewed up and spat out like so many before it.” In recent years, Greene King has slurped up a string of rivals including the 286-year-old brewer Belhaven, Laurel Pub Company and the Essex family brewer Ridley.

New GK signs at 735 pubs (Morning Advertiser): Greene King, the brewer and pub group, is undertaking a corporate branding exercise across its 735-strong managed house division. The company has upgraded exterior signage and fitted plaques inside its pub businesses to ensure they all carry the Greene King name. (The move coincides with a £1.2m prime-time television sponsorship deal. The company has put its name to ITV's primetime entertainment show 'Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway'. Mark Angela, managing director of Greene King's managed arm, said that through investment projects, many of its pubs already carried the appropriate parent company logo, and that the exercise had meant replacing the swing signs and adding internal signs at "a few hundred" pubs. Now all managed houses operated by the group will carry the Greene King identity, including brands such as Hungry Horse, the value food offer. Angela added: "With the sponsorship deal it was important to ensure that consumers can make the connection between Greene King and the pubs we operate. Now all sites carry the Greene King name.

Greene King IPA has become the official beer of English rugby in the brewer's second major sponsorship deal of the autumn. Greene King snapped up the rugby sponsorship after Carlsberg UK decided not to extend a deal for Tetley's which had been in place since 1997. As part of the new four-year rugby deal, Greene King's pub estate will become the official supporters' pubs of English rugby, and promotions will run throughout the season and for all England games.

Read the story of a pub that Greene King tried to shut down: The Admiral in Clifton, Bedfordshire. The locals staged a vigorous campaign and managed to get a stay of execution. Full story on their website. [***Late breaking news by e-mail: 'In fact, (even later news than on our site) we have been totally successful - we even made a Sky news morning slot, to celebrate the signing of a 5-year tenancy agreement.]

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Greene King News: Articles from around the world focusing on Greene King

[Worth visiting the "Save the Riser" blog to read about a campaign by customers of 'The Rising Sun' and local residents in Epsom. who are extremely concerned at the impact of imminent major changes to the nature of their Pub. They wish to persuade Young and Co, the new owners, that it is in their best interest to preserve the unique nature of our local.]