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Grand Metropolitan plc was a leisure, manufacturing and property conglomerate headquartered in England. The company was listed on the
London Stock Exchange London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St P ...
and was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index until it merged with
Guinness plc St. James's Gate Brewery is a brewery founded in 1759 in Dublin, Ireland, by Arthur Guinness. The company is now a part of Diageo, a company formed from the merger of Guinness and Grand Metropolitan in 1997. The main product of the brewery is ...
to form Diageo in 1997.


History


1934 to 1970s

The business began in 1934 as a hotel business called ''MRMA Ltd'' (abbreviated from Mount Royal Metropolitan Association).Competition Commission Report 1983
Grand Hotels (Mayfair) Ltd, a business founded after
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
by
Maxwell Joseph Sir Maxwell Joseph FRPSL (formerly ''Max'' Joseph) (31 May 1910, London – 22 September 1982, Kensington) was the founder of Grand Metropolitan plc, a large British hotel group. Career Educated at Pitman's Business School,
, merged with MRMA in 1957 and the combined business expanded rapidly under Joseph's leadership. It was first listed on the
London Stock Exchange London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St P ...
in 1961 and changed its name to Grand Metropolitan Hotels Ltd in 1962. It diversified into catering acquiring Bateman Catering in 1967 and then Midland Catering in 1968. It then bought
Express Dairies Express Dairies is a former brand of Dairy Crest, that specialised almost entirely in home deliveries of milk, and other dairy products. History The company was founded by George Barham in 1864 as the 'Express County Milk Supply Company,' so na ...
in 1969,Competition Commission Report 1990
the Berni Inn chain, and the
Mecca Mecca (; officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, commonly shortened to Makkah ()) is a city and administrative center of the Mecca Province of Saudi Arabia, and the holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, in a narrow ...
bingo halls in 1970. Next came its move into brewing, when in 1972 it bought Truman, Hanbury & Buxton and
Watney Mann Watney Combe & Reid was a leading brewery in London. At its peak in the 1930s it was a constituent of the FT 30 index of leading companies on the London Stock Exchange. It produced Watney's Red Barrel. History The Watney family were the mai ...
. The latter's subsidiary
International Distillers & Vintners International Distillers & Vintners was a brewing and wine and spirits distribution company, formed from the 1962 merger of W&A Gilbey and United Wine Traders. Founders W&A Gilbey was founded in 1857 as a gin distillery by Walter Gilbey, Sir Walte ...
owned Justerini & Brooks,
Baileys Irish Cream Baileys Irish Cream is an Irish cream liqueur, an alcoholic drink flavoured with cream, cocoa and Irish whiskey. It is made by Diageo at Nangor Road, in Dublin, Ireland and in Mallusk, Northern Ireland. It is the original Irish cream, invent ...
, Gilbey's gin, Piat wine and Croft sherry and port brands, as well as the European and Commonwealth rights to
Smirnoff vodka Smirnoff (; ) is a brand of vodka owned and produced by the British company Diageo. The Smirnoff brand began with a vodka distillery founded in Moscow by Pyotr Arsenievich Smirnov (1831–1898). It is distributed in 130 countries. Smirnoff produ ...
. It changed its name to Grand Metropolitan in 1973.


1980s onwards

In 1980 it bought Liggett Group, a US tobacco and drinks business. In 1981 it bought Warner Holidays and
Intercontinental Hotels Intercontinental is an adjective to describe something which relates to more than one continent. Intercontinental may also refer to: * Intercontinental ballistic missile, a long-range guided ballistic missile * InterContinental Hotels Group (IH ...
Corporation. In 1986 the Company sold the Liggett Group to Bennett S. LeBow. It acquired
Heublein Heublein Inc. (also known as Heublein Spirits) was an American producer and distributor of alcoholic beverages and food throughout the 20th century. During the 1960s and 1970s its stock was regarded as one of the most stable financial investments ...
wines and spirits from RJR Nabisco in 1987, which made it one of the largest producers of wines and spirits in the world, and gave the company ownership of the Smirnoff brand. Also in 1987 the Company withdrew from catering when it disposed of its catering division by way of a management buyout so creating
Compass Group Compass Group plc is a British multinational contract foodservice company headquartered in Chertsey, England. It is the largest contract foodservice company in the world employing over 500,000 people. It serves meals in locations including o ...
. In February 1988 386 pubs in London, the Home Counties and East Anglia were sold to
Brent Walker Brent Walker was a British company involved in property, gambling, distilled beverages and pubs. It was founded by George Walker, the brother of the boxer Billy Walker. In 1991, following the accumulation of debts which had been used to finance ...
; 210 pubs in the north and Midlands went to
Heron International Heron International is a British property development company. Founded in 1957 by the Ronson family, it came to prominence in the 1980s as the UK's second largest private company. After over extending itself in the 1990s, it was revived by Gerald R ...
and 105 pubs in the South East went to Gibbs Mew (a Wiltshire brewer subsequently bought by Enterprise Inns). Intercontinental Hotels were sold to Japanese based Saison Group. These disposals funded the expansion of its core betting operations by buying William Hill. It also entered the fast food industry by buying the
Pillsbury Company The Pillsbury Company is a Minneapolis, Minnesota-based company that was one of the world's largest producers of grain and other foodstuffs until it was bought by General Mills in 2001. General Mills brands consist of Annie's, Betty Crocker, Nat ...
and with it the Burger King chain in 1988. It also bought the Wimpy chain that year and merged it with Burger King. It continued to sell non-core business, including in 1990 the brewers Samuel Webster's and in 1991
Ushers of Trowbridge Ushers of Trowbridge was a brewery in Trowbridge, Wiltshire, England, between 1824 and 2000. History In 1824, Thomas Usher and his wife Hannah acquired a small brewery in Back Street, Trowbridge, renaming it Usher's Wiltshire Brewery. In 184 ...
. In March 1991 the remaining breweries were sold to Courage (subsequently sold by Foster's to Scottish & Newcastle) in a deal that pooled 8,450 pubs as the jointly owned Inntrepreneur Estates Company. Inntrepreneur had to have 4,350 tied pubs by the time the Beer Orders took effect, which led to many being sold and fewer being let on free-of-tie leases. In September 1993, 1,654 Chef & Brewer pubs were sold to Scottish & Newcastle (subsequently bought by Heineken). 1,750 pubs were sold in 1995 for £254M to Nomura as Phoenix Inns in one of the first securitisation deals, and in May 1996 a further 1,410 pubs were transferred to Spring Inns with a view to a similar sale. In the end Inntrepreneur and Spring were both sold to Nomura for £1.2bn in September 1997 to clear the way for the Guinness deal. This left Nomura with 4,400 pubs They created the Unique Pub Co for the 2,600 pubs that had signed the controversial SupplyLine agreement; the remaining 1,100 Voyager pubs were free-of-tie, earmarked for disposal or were the 400 locked in legal disputes over SupplyLine. Disposals and the acquisition of Inn Partnership (1,241 tenanted pubs) from Greenall Whitley in 1998 and 988 smaller Bass pubs in 2001. The remains of the Grand Metropolitan pub estate became part of
Enterprise Inns Ei Group plc, formerly known as Enterprise Inns plc, is the largest pub company in the UK, with around 5,000 properties, predominantly run as leased and tenanted pubs. Ei Group plc is headquartered in Solihull, West Midlands. It was listed on ...
when an Enterprise-led consortium bought 3,219 tenanted Unique pubs and 940 leased and managed Voyager pubs from Nomura in a £2bn deal in 2002.


Merger into Diageo

Grand Metropolitan merged with Guinness plc in 1997 to form Diageo.$33 Billion Giant Guinness to Unite With Grand Met
''The New York Times'', May 1997


References


Further reading

* Reader, W.J., ''Grand Metropolitan: A History 1962–1987'', Oxford University Press, {{Authority control 1934 establishments in England 1997 disestablishments in England Companies disestablished in 1997 Conglomerate companies established in 1934 Defunct companies based in London Diageo Hotel and leisure companies based in London Food and drink companies established in 1934 Real estate companies established in 1934 Defunct real estate companies Real estate companies disestablished in the 20th century