E-Malt.com News article: UK: One of the best-known figures in British brewing dies aged 85. Bid talk increases.

John Young, one of the best-known figures in British brewing, chairman for the past 44 years of Young & Co’s Brewery, died on Sunday night, the day before the final batch of cask ale was due to be brewed at Young's Ram Brewery in Wandsworth, south-west London before its closure. He was 85 and had endured a long battle with cancer, The Guardian posted on September 19.

Mr Young is best remembered for his stubborn refusal, in 1964, to stock keg beer in Young's pubs, keeping faith with traditional draught ale processes. The unfashionable move was later seen as an important landmark in the fight to save cask ale.

Mr Young, whose family speaks for more than 50 per cent of the shares, is likely to be replaced by Nicholas Bryan, former managing director of Courage UK, who joined the Young’s board recently as a non-executive director.

Shares of Young’s, which moved last year from the main market to AIM, rose 218p to £30.56 amid suggestions that Mr Young’s death on Sunday night could increase its vulnerability to a bid.

Analysts said that the chances of a takeover had already been raised by the scrapping of the B shares that accompanied the move to AIM and the decision to close its Wandsworth brewery and shift beer production to Bedford in a joint venture with Charles Wells.

Likely suitors include Greene King, Wolverhampton & Dudley Breweries, Punch Taverns and Robert Tchenguiz’s Laurel Pub Company as well as private equity firms including GI Partners.

Mr Young's great-great-grandfather Charles Allen Young was one of two businessmen who, in 1831, took over the Ram Brewery, which traces its roots back to the 16th century. He succeeded his father as chairman in 1962, and in recent years has - together with other family members - resisted pressure to allow outside shareholders greater control of the business, which includes more than 220 pubs.

A former fighter pilot, Mr Young struggled with failing health to chair an emotional shareholders' meeting two months ago at which the sale of the Ram Brewery to property developers Minerva was approved. Proceeds of £69m are being invested in the group's expanding pub estate, while brewing operations have been merged with those of Charles Wells.

At previous shareholder meetings Mr Young regularly sparred with Guinness Peat, a shareholder activist group seeking to break the family's control. Fond of the occasional stunt, he would brandish a megaphone at Guinness Peat executives or appear in boxing gloves.

Pat Read, a former Young’s chief executive, who worked with Mr Young for 35 years, described him as “a most generous and caring man who led the real ale revival in the 1960s when people were going over to what he called gassy beer”. He added: “He was a lot of fun and really cared for his employees. He wanted people to look forward to coming to work at the brewery on a Monday morning.”

Mr Young - known as Mr John to brewery staff - leaves a son, James, who is deputy chairman at Young's, and a daughter, Ilse, who lives in the US.


20 September, 2006