CAMRA opposes bid for Jennings

April 22, 2005: CAMRA is urging shareholders in Lakeland brewer Jennings to reject the overtures of brewing giant Wolverhampton and Dudley.

W&D are set to table a formal bid for Jennings, which, with a strong portfolio of beers and a 128-strong pub group, reported a profit of 13.4 per cent last year.

The bidder feels the smaller firm would sit well, geographically as well as economically, next to its existing business and has pledged to keep the Cumbrian brewery open.

But CAMRA says it has heard all this before, when W&D bought Marston's in 1999 with similar assurances and, two years later, closed that brewery.

CAMRA chief executive Mike Benner said: "Any bid from W&D for Jennings brewery will be bad news for consumers and employees, but also for the wider community in Cumbria who face the potential loss of a unique local brewer.

"Like many local and regional brewers, Jennings has a large number of small shareholders who are committed to the future of the brewery. W&D will have a hard task persuading them that a takeover is in the interests of Jennings brewery."