Jennings- Another One Bites The Dust?

Can Jennings survive? The takeover bid by Wolverhampton & Dudley has been accepted by the Cumbrian brewer, so there is little point in manning the barricades to save it.

But the nagging worry persists. W&D has pledged to keep the brewery open. The group says it has a good track record where closures are concerned.

And there is little doubt that if Robinsons of Stockport, which has built up a substantial stake in Jennings in recent years, were allowed to buy the brewery it would close it as quickly as it did Hartleys in Cumbria many years ago.

Nevertheless I find it difficult to accept W&D as the least-worst option. It is true that when it rescued Camerons of Hartlepool in the 1990s it not only kept the brewery open but invested in a site that had been disgracefully run down by previous owners. Camerons was eventually sold on to Castle Eden Brewery and continues to brew.

But there is no "Dudley" brewery in Wolverhampton & Dudley. The Julia Hanson plant that formed part of the original group was despatched in the early 1990s. When W&D acquired the Mansfield Brewery it closed it in 2002 even though it was a modern and highly flexible plant, able to brew both lager and ale.

A W&D spokesman told me Mansfield had been closed because 80% of its production was Foster's Lager and W&D doesn't brew lager. Far be it for me to wave any flags for the likes of Foster's but I would have thought it made good economic sense to hang on to a plant that can make large and lucrative volumes of Aussie fizz.

Banks's Wolverhampton brewery, I'm told, is brewing close to capacity. Marston's in Burton-on-Trent has enjoyed considerable investment and expansion since becoming part of W&D. But it is similarly close to capacity now it has taken on the contract to brew Draught Bass for Interbrew.

In other words, W&D could soon be looking for additional brewing capacity. I doubt it will find it at Jennings. Enter the Burtonwood Brewery near Warrington. W&D owns the bricks and mortar but the brewing equipment remains in the hands of Peter Ward of Thomas Hardy Holdings. Ward is a contract brewer. He was responsible, for example, for producing the Brakspear brands until the new Brakspear brewery opened in Oxfordshire.

Burtonwood, in common with Mansfield, is a modern and flexible plant that could be extremely useful to W&D in its search for additional capacity.

So where does Jennings fit into this equation? The answer is: not very well. It's a brewery I know from several visits. It has a superb location at the foot of Cockermouth Castle and the confluence of the Cocker and Derwent rivers. Substantial investment has gone into the brewery in recent years.

But it has one major problem. It was built at a time when beer deliveries were made by horse-drawn drays. The entrance to the brewery is off a narrow road and then down an even narrower lane between tall buildings. Backing modern tankers down to the delivery bay is a nightmare.

Burtonwood, on the other hand, has no such problems. It has good access and its deliveries can be swiftly plugged into the motorway network. Based in the North-west, it would make a good base for delivering beer to Jenning's Cumbrian pubs. W&D says it will continue to brew and supply Jenning's beers to its 150 tied pubs and 350 free trade accounts. But the beers could be brewed at Burtonwood.

Let us be brutally frank. W&D's main interest in buying Jennings is to get its hands on a substantial pub trade in a region that draws a vast number of tourists all year round, the summer in particular. The Jenning's brands may continue but I think drinkers will soon find Burton Bitter and Pedigree propping up bars as well.

Compared to many other big brewers, W&D's record of closing plants may be relatively benign. But I think the future of Jennings must be in doubt.

W&D can allay those fears by stating categorically that it will keep Jennings open for at least 10 years. Both the workforce and I look forward to hearing from them.