You Can Take It with You

For generations, Englishmen have liked to down their bitter in the chatty, relaxed atmosphere of the local pub. That is where they swallow more than four-fifths of the 20 gallons per head consumed annually, leaving the home in second rank as a place to drink. But Britain's new stop-and-sniff law, which went into effect Oct. 15, threatens to change all that. It authorizes police to make a suspected tippler pull to the curb and take a "breathalyzer" test--that is, he must blow into a bag in which crystals that change color indicate how much alcohol he has imbibed. After a mere two pints of beer, or four small tots of whisky, he risks arrest.

The test has been trying for some 70,000 local pubs--and for the breweries that supply them. Publicans across the land are complaining of losing their regulars. During the first nine months of 1967, pub sales enjoyed a 4% increase over the same period of the previous year. But October saw a 6% slump. British brewers are now beginning to take stock, and what they see is grim indeed. Bass Charrington reported trade off by 4%. Vaux Breweries, losing money in Scotland, threatens to raise prices. Whitbread sees little prospect of improving profits in the year ahead. Bucking the Trend. Only Britain's second largest beermaker, Allied Breweries (Ind Coope, Tetley Walker, Ansells), is bucking the national trend. During four critical weeks ending Nov. 24, Allied actually showed a 1% increase in sales. An attempt to change national habits is mainly responsible for that. Even before the breathalyzer blow fell, the firm launched a "You Can Take It with You" promotion campaign at a cost of $70 million. Some 8,500 Allied-owned pubs in Britain blossomed with displays promoting take-home sales, which, the company figured, have a huge untapped potential.

Another hedge against the vagaries of the domestic market is Allied's push into foreign sales. In 1963 it launched Skol, a lager beer that is brewed under franchise in 14 countries from Austria to Australia and sold in 36--with Allied holding an 18% interest. Last year an estimated 22 million gallons were sold worldwide, and in 1968 Skol hopes to froth ahead by 50%. Allied presently has a $14.4 million offer in for d'Oranjeboom, the No. 3 brewer in The Netherlands. There are no other bidders for the 300-year-old company, and the deal is likely to become the first major takeover by any British brewer in Europe.

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