{{Short description|Former brewery in Wiltshire, England}} {{Use British English|date=May 2020}} {{Use dmy dates|date=May 2020}} {{Infobox company | name = Ushers of Trowbridge | logo = Ushers Fine Ales - geograph.org.uk - 608499.jpg | type = | predecessor = | successor = | foundation = {{start date and age|1824}} | founder = 1824–1959: Usher family<br/>1960–1971: Watney Mann<br/>1972–1989: Grand Metropolitan<br/>1990–2004: Independent | defunct = {{end date and age|2004}}, purchased by Punch Taverns | location_city = Trowbridge, Wiltshire | location_country = England | locations = | area_served = Southwest | key_people = Thomas Usher | industry = Alcoholic beverage | products = Beer | production = | revenue = | owner = | num_employees = | parent = | divisions = | subsid = | homepage = | footnotes = Ushers beers now brewed by Wychwood Brewery }}

'''Ushers of Trowbridge''' was a brewery in Trowbridge, Wiltshire, England, between 1824 and 2000.

== History == In 1824, Thomas Usher and his wife Hannah acquired a small brewery in Back Street, Trowbridge, renaming it Usher's Wiltshire Brewery.<ref name="BrewIG" /> In 1844, the couple's three sons joined the partnership, allowing the parents to retire in 1869. After this, the beers and brand developed a loyal following, facilitating a quick expansion of the company through the 19th century. In 1887, the partnership took over Fanshaw & Palmer of Donnington, Berkshire. This resulted in the registration in 1889 of Usher's Wiltshire Brewery Ltd to combine the two organisations.<ref name="BrewIG" /> From its date of formation until the Second World War, the company acquired some fifteen independent breweries and their associated public house premises.<ref name="BrewIG">{{cite book|title=The Brewing industry: a guide to historical records|author=Lesley Richmond, Alison Turton|year=1990 |publisher=Manchester University Press|isbn=0-7190-3032-3}}</ref>

After 1945, the company acquired Conigre House and gardens in Trowbridge, then the home of the local Liberal Club, enabling it to double the scale of its brewery and bottling plant.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cotswoldarch.org.uk/projects/projects_2009/trowbridge.htm|title=Brewery Quarter, Trowbridge|publisher=Cotswold Architecture|access-date=2009-11-21}}</ref>

Having dropped the apostrophe from its registered name in 1951,<ref name="BrewIG"/> in 1960 the company agreed to a takeover bid from the acquisitive Watney Mann. The joint assets included the brewery sites in both London (soon closed) and Trowbridge, together with 900 pubs.<ref name="BrewIG"/> In 1964, the company changed its registered name to Ushers Brewers Ltd.<ref name="BrewIG"/> Watney Mann merged with Grand Metropolitan Hotels in 1972.<ref>[http://www.quaffale.org.uk/php/brewery/754 Directory of UK Real Ale Breweries]</ref>

In 1991 Roger North, the MD of Grand Met Brewing<ref name="NZH20000630">{{cite news |last1=Senescall |first1=Geoff |title=New Lion boss here for more than beer |url=https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11329 |access-date=12 May 2020 |work=The New Zealand Herald |publisher=NZME. Publishing Limited |date=30 June 2000}}</ref> led a management buyout creating a reconstituted Ushers Brewers Ltd, with an estate of smaller pubs deemed by Grand Metropolitan to be too small or not capable of redevelopment. The new company began acquiring pubs to provide a distribution network, under a holding company called Innspired Pubs. By March 1997 the company owned 541 pubs<ref name="MA19970303">{{cite news |title=Does Ushers have pulling power? |url=https://www.morningadvertiser.co.uk/Article/1997/03/02/Does-Ushers-have-pulling-power |access-date=12 May 2020 |work=Morning Advertiser |date=3 March 1997}}</ref> and floated on the London Stock Exchange after a previous float had been aborted in 1995.<ref name="MA19970303" />

Following a profit warning, North took the company private again in December 1998 with the backing of Alchemy Partners.<ref name="Breare">{{cite news |title=Breare orders |url=https://www.thecaterer.com/archive/breare-orders |work=The Caterer |date=21 January 2000 |access-date=12 May 2020}}</ref> The accounts to 31 October 1998 showed the brewery making operating profit of £6.3m on sales of £45.8m whilst the tenanted pubs had an operating profit of £11.7m on turnover of £27.9m.<ref name="Breare" /> However, North fell out with Alchemy because they "wanted to take Ushers down a route with less emphasis on brewing and brands".<ref name="NZH20000630" /> Alchemy merged Ushers with 250 pubs in the Alehouse chain that they had acquired in June 1997, and replaced North with Robert Breare who came from a hotel background and proclaimed himself "a devotee of a major separation between brewing and retail".<ref name="Breare" /> Breare claimed that the brewery was "big enough to make serious money. When it is close to capacity it is very, very profitable"<ref name="Breare" /> but it was running at 70% of its 600,000 barrels-per-year capacity<ref name="Breare" /> and was closed in 2000.

The residual pub operator company, renamed Innspired Pubs plc, was bought by Punch Taverns in September 2004.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3643560.stm|title=Punch buys Innspired pub group|date=10 September 2004|publisher=BBC News |access-date=8 October 2016}}</ref> Today, beers are brewed under the Usher name by the Wychwood Brewery for Refresh UK.<ref name="DirRA">{{cite web|url=http://www.quaffale.org.uk/php/brewery/10|title=Ushers of Trowbridge PLC|publisher=The Directory of Real Ale Brewers|access-date=2009-11-21}}</ref>

== Legacy == The brewery equipment was sold for £1.5M to North Korea via German broker Uwe Oehms. It now forms the core of the Taedonggang brewery, just outside Pyongyang.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.wiltshiretimes.co.uk/news/4475589.How_Ushers__Trowbridge_brewery_is_now_the_toast_of_North_Korea/|title=How Ushers' Trowbridge brewery is now the toast of North Korea|publisher=Wiltshire Times|date=2009-07-05|access-date=2009-11-21}}</ref> In 2009, its new brew "Taedong River Beer" made international headlines after featuring in what is thought to be North Korean television's first beer advert.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/8132199.stm|title=North Korea launches beer advert|publisher=Wiltshire Times|date=2009-07-03|access-date=2009-11-21}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/features/kim-jong-ale-how-did-ushers-brewery-of-trowbridge-end-up-in-north-korea-producing-pyongyangs-number-9268051.html |title=Kim Jong-ale: How did Ushers brewery of Trowbridge end up in North Korea producing Pyongyang's number one beer – and what did it take to set up a taste test back in Wiltshire? |publisher=independent.co.uk |date=18 April 2014 |access-date=2016-10-08}}</ref>

The main Trowbridge site was redeveloped into housing (including the Ushers Apartments)<ref>{{cite web|title=Ushers Apartments|url=http://www.theushersapartments.co.uk/|publisher=Newland Homes|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101019224453/http://www.theushersapartments.co.uk/|archive-date=19 October 2010}}</ref> and a Sainsbury's supermarket.

==References== {{Reflist}}

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Category:Companies based in Wiltshire Category:Defunct breweries of the United Kingdom Category:British companies established in 1824 Category:Companies disestablished in 2004 Category:Trowbridge Category:1824 establishments in England Category:Food and drink companies established in 1824 Category:Companies formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange