Tennent's cheered by £7m boost and jobs for Glasgow

Published on Saturday 19 June 2010 15:04

TENNENT'S, the Scottish brewer, is to relocate jobs from eastern Europe to its Glasgow headquarters and invest £7 million in modernising its back office system.

The plans have been financed by C&C, the Irish cider company that acquired Tennent's last summer from Anheuser-Busch InBev in a 185m deal.

Scottish Development International, the Scottish government agency, helped secure the latest investment with a 245,000 support package.

Tennent's will move 23 jobs in areas such as credit control and management accounts from Prague and Budapest to Glasgow. Another 37 telesales roles will transfer from InBev to Tennent's.

Managing director Mike Lees said the investment represented a step-change for the business. "The idea is for us to become more of a standalone operation," he said.

The Wellpark brewery in Glasgow's east end is also focusing on new products, likely to be a range of speciality beers which the company hopes to roll out over the next couple of years. It is also extending its contract brewing to make use of capacity and raise the division's revenue, which currently stands at 162m. C&C has backed the brewery to raise the level of financial support to publicans through loans.

C&C, which makes Magners cider, acquired the Irish, Northern Irish and Scottish businesses of Anheuser-Busch InBev. The deal included distribution rights to certain ABI brands including Stella Artois and Beck's.

John Dunsmore, chief executive of C&C, intends to exploit the market-leading position of Tennent's in Scotland and export the brand, in particular to Canada and the US.

Since the acquisition Tennent's has announced a sponsorship of Celtic and Rangers football clubs, said to be worth 9m over three years. Last week it unveiled its first television advertising campaign for four years which airs for the first time tonight and is based around the founder Hugh Tennent.

Lees, who joined the company in 1978 as a graduate trainee, said the company was keen to explore opportunities, but the priority is keeping Tennent's as the number one lager. It accounts for one in three pints sold in Scotland, or 710,000 every day.

Dunsmore said at the time of the deal last August that he wanted to invest in Tennent's and use it as a means to expand the cider range into Scotland. It is expected to push hard against market dominant Strongbow owned by Heineken which acquired the brand when it bought Scottish & Newcastle.

Lees said C&C was putting Tennent's on the front foot. "Tennent's did not get the same focus under InBev, but we are a significant part of C&C group. The investment to support Tennent's lager is significantly above previous years."