Family firm Thwaites has a strong reputation and is recognised for its quality beer brands. “When I joined, people were saying, ‘sound move, good product’,” says Magnall.
The former deputy managing director at rival Greene King’s Brewing & Brands division came into the beer industry nine years ago after moving from a career in fast-moving consumer goods, working at well-known names such as Heinz, Grampian Foods and Northern Foods.
He was headhunted and joined Greene King in 2003 while working on a pan-European salad business.
“They farmed about 5,000 hectares and talked in terms of heads while we talk in terms of barrels. They produced 50 million heads of iceberg lettuce and 50 million celery heads per annum.
“And I was also the managing director of a separate business there, the beetroot business. And while beetroot might not sound exciting, it is exactly the same as beer — how do you develop it?”
During his time at Greene King he went through a variety of acquisitions including Ridley’s, Hardys & Hansons and Belhaven. But eight months ago he took up the mantle as managing director at Thwaites Brewing Co.
“Thwaites was an opportunity for me, as the managing director, to shape the strategy of the business. It is a lot harder to shape the strategy of a larger organisation,” he says. “Thwaites is also in the process of building a new brewery, which was also an attraction,” he admits.
“Chairwoman Ann Yerburgh is involved in the business, but lets you get on with it. I recently attended an awards ceremony and what happened is a lesson for a lot of people.
“We stayed at a hotel in London and I asked Ann where she was staying and she was at a Fuller’s pub, sussing out the competition.”
Looking forward
Magnall has already started formulating a new strategy at Thwaites and one of his first moves was to look at the brands within the portfolio to ensure there is a cohesive plan.
Wainwright, the 4.1% ABV golden ale, is to get a £2m investment while other brands such as Smooth and Lancaster Bomber are also set for support in the future.
Magnall said: “I would argue they have never really pushed brands. Wainwright is now the biggest brand Thwaites has got and Smooth would have been the biggest brand before that.
“I think Wainwright is more than capable of quadrupling its volume.
It could end up taking up 40% of the production at the Thwaites Brewery.”
According to the most recent CGA Strategy data, Wainwright is ranked in the top 25 of cask ales and is the fastest-growing brew among the biggest players. “With our current growth rate [71%] and everyone else’s rate we will be a top 15 brand in 18 months,” he adds.
“The reason for the investment is that Wainwright is en vogue. It is premium and everyone treats it as premium, even though it’s 4.1 ABV%. If you take Doom Bar — it was consistently the fastest-growing beer three years on the trot — we have now beaten Doom Bar. You can argue this has come from a low base but, aspirationally, we will be top 10 in three years.”
The strategy, though, is not just about Wainwright, but developing a succession plan for future brands.
The Thwaites seasonal Signature range of beers will be a conduit for this. If a brand sells well, it will become a quarterly favourite the year after, and if it performs strongly, Thwaites will consider making it a more permanent beer.
Passionate about brewing
Thwaites has a microbrewery on-site, which means it can trial up to three different beers a week. “You can’t get that flexibility anywhere else,” Magnall believes.
More importantly, Magnall admits that these changes and innovations need to have the backing of the team at the brewery.
“The biggest issue for me — and I have made no secret of this — is you have to bring the team along with you. It can’t be running at a different pace to you,” he says.
“But Thwaites hasn’t got where it has over a period of 205 years by being wrong. It has got where it is because it cares and is passionate.
“What is good is spending money on the brands — they [the team] just get it. I was talking to the troops in the brewery and they don’t mind us investing in the brands. They see it is the right thing to do.”
And this investment will be supplemented by further support in other areas of the business and some streamlining elsewhere.
“I am recruiting more sales guys. Unless you are in front of the customer you are never going to sell anything. You can have the best brands in the world, but you are never going to sell anything unless you get it in front of the customer.”
The company is also about to appoint a US distributor and the brewing business has been undergoing some ‘refocusing’.
“If you look at our business, we did a lot of contract work — that is not our core business. We bottle and brew for BrewDog, but that stops in December. It’s not a core competence for us, so why should I spend my time and my guys focusing on other people’s products?”
Challenging conditions
Recently, the Lancashire brewer and pub operator reported a fall in pre-tax profits in the six months to 30 September, a period that the company recently described as “very challenging”.
Magnall warned that the impact the poor weather conditions had on the business should not be under-estimated.
“You won’t recover it. But are we moving in the right direction. We are doing a shed-load of investments in our pubs and have just bought a new inn in York. Our spa hotels are doing well, but our pubs are northern-based, which has some implications.
“The difference between Greene King and Thwaites is that we are probably more expensive on manufacturing costs because we don’t have the advantage of scale, but also the difference in the price of a pint in the north compared to a price of a pint in the south is a quid plus.
“If you look at our investments thenthere is gradual move down the country with the purchase of the Fleece in Cirencester, Gloucestershire.”
But what of the future for Thwaites, which he calls a “sleeping giant”? “We are actually putting our head above the parapet and saying ‘we are here’,” says Magnall.
“If we get Wainwright into the top 10 brands, we can become a top 10 brewery at the same time.”