Activities

Hall & Woodhouse is an independent regional brewer, pub operator and soft drinks manufacturer based in Dorset.

Founded more than 200 years ago at the time of the Napoleonic wars, the group is owned today by the fifth generation of the Woodhouse family.

The group’s estate of more than 260 pubs stretch from Exeter to Eastbourne in the South and Hemel Hempstead in the North and includes a couple of hotels.

It brews a range of bottled and casked beers under the Badger name, along with many seasonal beers, and is also licensed to brew Hofbräu lager (developed in Munich more than 400 years ago) in the UK. Its line-up of Rio natural sparkling fruit drinks sells through supermarkets, retailers and newsagents as well as Hall & Woodhouse pubs.

Timeline

• 1930s: Hall & Woodhouse becomes the first brewer to put Best Bitter in a can.
• 1957:  The company sets up a soft drinks business, later known as Panda Soft Drinks. The Panda Pops brand is introduced in 1974.
• 1963: Hall & Woodhouse buys the Matthews Brewery in Gillingham, which includes 61 tied houses.
• 1999: The company beats off competition from Shepherd Neame to snap up brewer King & Barnes in Horsham for £25.5m. The deal nets it 55 pubs but it closes the newly-acquired brewery in August 2000.

Operating data

Annual turnover: nearly £90m
Number of pubs: 196 tenanted, 65 managed
Number of employees: around 1,200

Strategy

"We aim to grow as an independent family company, becoming the top regional brewer in the South and developing a ‘World Class’ drinks business."

Source: company website

Key directors

Managing director: David Woodhouse
Financial director: Martin Scott
Retail director: David Hoare
Tenanted estate director: Andrew Younger
Group head of brands: David French
Vice chairman: Mark Woodhouse

Contact

The Brewery
Blandford St Mary
Dorset
DT11 9LS

Tel: 01258 452 141
Fax: 01258 459 258

E-mail: enquiries@hall-woodhouse.co.uk
Website: http://www.hall-woodhouse.co.uk