Grand Metropolitan PLC
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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 The London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange based in London, England. the total market value of all companies trading on the LSE stood at US$3.42 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Paul's Cath ...
and was a constituent of the
FTSE 100 Index The Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 Index, also called the FTSE 100 Index, FTSE 100, FTSE, or, informally, the "Footsie" , is the United Kingdom's best-known stock market index of the 100 most highly capitalised blue chips listed on ...
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 Diageo plc ( ) is a British Multinational corporation, multinational alcoholic beverage company, with its headquarters in London, England. It is a major distributor of Scotch whisky and other spirits and operates from 132 sites around the world ...
in 1997.


History


1934 to 1970s

The business began in 1934 as a hotel business called ''MRMA Ltd'' (abbreviated from Mount Royal Metropolitan Association). Grand Hotels (Mayfair) Ltd, a business founded after
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
by
Maxwell Joseph Sir Maxwell Joseph FRPSL (formerly ''Max'' Joseph) (31 May 1910, London – 22 September 1982, Kensington) was the founder of Grand Metropolitan, 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 The London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange based in London, England. the total market value of all companies trading on the LSE stood at US$3.42 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Paul's Cath ...
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 in 1969, the Berni Inn chain, and the
Mecca Mecca, officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, is the capital of Mecca Province in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia; it is the Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, in a narrow valley above ...
bingo halls in 1970. Next came its move into brewing, when in 1972 it bought Truman, Hanbury, Buxton & Co. and Watney Mann. The latter's subsidiary International Distillers & Vintners owned Justerini & Brooks,
Baileys Irish Cream Baileys Irish Cream is an Irish cream liqueur made of cream, cocoa and Irish Whiskey emulsified together with vegetable oil. Baileys is made by Diageo at Nangor Road, in Dublin, Ireland and in Mallusk, Northern Ireland. It is the original ...
, Gilbey's gin, Piat wine and Croft sherry and port brands, as well as the European and Commonwealth rights to Smirnoff vodka. It changed its name to Grand Metropolitan in 1973.


1980s onwards

The business failed to acquire the Coral bookmakers from Joe Coral in 1980 to expand its betting and gaming operations, but did succeed in acquiring
Liggett Group Liggett Group ( ), now JTI Ligget, formerly known as Liggett & Myers Tobacco Company, is the fourth largest tobacco company in the United States. As of 2014, Liggett Group was the fourth largest American tobacco company by gross revenue, though ...
, a US tobacco and drinks business. In 1981 it bought Warner Holidays and Intercontinental Hotels Corporation. In 1986 the Company sold the
Liggett Group Liggett Group ( ), now JTI Ligget, formerly known as Liggett & Myers Tobacco Company, is the fourth largest tobacco company in the United States. As of 2014, Liggett Group was the fourth largest American tobacco company by gross revenue, though ...
to Bennett S. LeBow. It acquired Heublein wines and spirits from
RJR Nabisco R. J. Reynolds Nabisco, Inc., doing business as RJR Nabisco, was an American conglomerate, selling tobacco and food products, headquartered in the Calyon Building in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. R. J. Reynolds Nabisco stopped ...
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 A management buyout (MBO) is a form of acquisition in which a company's existing managers acquire a large part, or all, of the company, whether from a parent company or individual. Management- and/or leveraged buyouts became noted phenomena of 19 ...
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 Europe, ahead of Sodexo, employing over 500,000 people. It serves meals in location ...
. 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. In the 1970s, the company branched out into film production. It was founded by George Walker, the brother of the boxer Billy Walker. In 1991, follo ...
; 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 ...
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 Pillsbury is an American brand of baking and dough products, marketed by General Mills and Brynwood Partners. Pillsbury products include refrigerated and frozen dough products, including the Toaster Strudel, marketed by General Mills; and shel ...
and with it the
Burger King Burger King Corporation (BK, stylized in all caps) is an American multinational chain store, chain of hamburger fast food restaurants. Headquartered in Miami-Dade County, Florida, the company was founded in 1953 as Insta-Burger King, a Jacks ...
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. 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 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 Diageo plc ( ) is a British Multinational corporation, multinational alcoholic beverage company, with its headquarters in London, England. It is a major distributor of Scotch whisky and other spirits and operates from 132 sites around the world ...
.$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 Companies formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange