Protz: Proving the doomsayers wrong
As it's a favourite theme of Dr Who that robots are taking over the universe, you can expect to see an episode of the series filmed at the Wells & Young's Brewery in Bedford sometime soon.
The robots there may not be threatening the solar system, but they have taken over cask and keg handling.
You could stand for hours and marvel at machines picking up metal containers and depositing them with unerring accuracy on to pallets.
"They only stop for a tea break," laughs managing director Nigel McNally. And as Wells & Young's is a fiercely patriotic company, it's likely a tea break has been programmed into the robots' day.
Using robots means fewer jobs. But robots don't get bad backs or winter flu and the money saved, chairman Paul Wells stresses, will go into promoting the company's brands. Young's beers are being advertised at London stations and in the capital's media, and a new promotion for Wells Bombardier is under way.
The robots underscore the frantic activity that has taken place at the Eagle Brewery since the fateful day in 2006 when Young's announced it would stop production in London.
In the past 18 months, not only have the Young's beers been moved, but Bedford has also taken on an additional 80,000 barrels a year in the shape of Courage Best and Directors, acquired from Scottish & Newcastle.
A considerable amount of space has been found at the brewery to expand the yeast-handling plant that enables Courage, Wells and Young's beers to maintain their individual characters.
Taste and flavour depend on yeast as much as malt and hops and separate cultures are carefully maintained at Bedford. There are also further yeast cultures for such lager beers as Red Stripe, Kirin and Cobra.
The quality of beer is taken seriously. Young's drinkers are notoriously passionate about the former Wandsworth beers and Wells & Young's set up focus groups in London to make sure consumers were happy with the new versions of Bitter, Special and Winter Warmer from Bedford.
It was no secret that Young's Bitter was a tad too dark when it was first brewed at the Eagle Brewery. The problem was quickly dealt with and now the beer has its familiar pale bronze colour. "Young's drinkers have been very positive with the results," Paul Wells says.
Wells & Young's is a merged brewing operation but there are two separate pub companies operating as Charles Wells and Young's. Young's is still based in south London.
Cross fertilisation
But the number of brands does allow for some cross-fertilisation in the outlets of the two pub companies. As Paul Wells says, if you go into the Lamb, a famous Young's pub in central London, you will find not only Young's Bitter and Special, but also Courage Directors and Wells Bombardier.
Paul and Nigel don't recognise the now infamous analysis by the British Beer & Pub Association in the autumn that beer sales were as low as the time of the great depression of the 1930s. "We had a good summer and pre-Christmas period," Paul Wells says.
"We're out-performing the market," Nigel adds. "Our cask ales are in growth. Independent brewers are doing well if they have strong free trade. We're picking up from the national brewers' decline."
The falling volumes of national lager and "smoothflow" keg brands means the giant pub companies are not only switching to cask but are also asking Wells & Young's, with a training centre at Bedford and a large cellar management team, for advice on handling.
Growing volumes
Bombardier is now the fastest-growing premium cask beer in the country and is second in the off-trade behind Newcastle Brown. The Young's beers are also seeing positive growth after being static for several years and investment is going into the long-neglected Courage brands.
Courage Best now supports national darts tournaments while Bombardier is sponsoring the new Al Murray's Happy Hour TV series.
Last week Devizes, this week Bedford, another brewing town where Mr Doom and Mr Gloom are not welcome.
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