Abstract
It has been suggested that the commercial aspects of the museum business are coming to dominate how ‘the past’ is presented. (Lumley R (ed). The museum time machine: putting cultures on display. Routledge, London, 1988; Cameron CM. Emergent industrial heritage: the politics of selection. Mus Anthropol 23(3):58–73, 2000). Within the context of corporate museums and visitor centres, this trend may be particularly intense, with the past being constructed with specific reference to present commercial interests and activities.
Drawing from recent research conducted in the British brewing industry, this paper examines strategies in the management of company heritage in the wake of changing patterns of corporate ownership and brand management which are becoming increasingly global in scope. In such an environment, company heritage may be either preserved, completely dispensed with or, as demonstrated with reference to the transition from the Bass Visitor Centre to the Coors Visitor Centre in Burton upon Trent, radically reconstructed in ways which, whilst harmonising the presentation of the past with the commercial conditions of the present, threaten local and regional identities articulated in terms of local industrial heritage.
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Notes
- 1.
Ronald Dore has cited orientation towards mergers and acquisitions as one of the traits which distinguish Japan’s ‘welfare capitalism’ from the ‘stock market capitalism’ which is dominant in the USA and the UK, whereas in the latter, M&A is described as ‘common… a major agenda item of Boards, a major preoccupation of top managers, and a key item of news in the financial press’; Japanese firms by contrast are characterised by ‘low concern with M&A by Boards, CEOs, press’ which are likely to be ‘…inhibited by explicit concerns as to whether the “cultures” of the merged entities will meld’ (Dore 2000: 26).
- 2.
In her working paper, ‘Multinational Enterprises and the Internationalisation of the Alcoholic Beverages Industry’, Teresa Da Silva Lopes notes, ‘…family members are an important factor in supporting the company brand image, given that they are the living icon of their brand names and success in the industry is strictly linked to tradition and heritage’ (1999:4).
- 3.
Both philanthropy and politics seem to have been considered by at least some leading industrialists as their ‘public duty’. Samuel Whitbread served as Tory MP, a seat inherited by his son Samuel Whitbread II, whose two sons also served as members in the House of Commons (Ritchie 1992). Michael Bass, Lord Burton and grandson of founder William Bass served as liberal MP from Derby for 35 years in the nineteenth century.
- 4.
One woman I recently spoke to, the manageress at a dormitory for women in London called Queen Alexandra’s House, mentioned that Henry Dalton, founder of Royal Dalton potter in Stoke-on-Trent, had donated an extremely rare series of ceramic tiles which hung in the basement dining room and all of the ceramic tiling with which the interior lobbies had been finished as part of his efforts to gain a title.
- 5.
Posted on an earlier version of the website for Whitbread PLC [http://www.whitbread.co.uk/about/index.cfm?id=114], the description of the company’s history has since been revised to read as follows:
-
WHITBREAD PLC REINVENTING FOR THE 21st CENTURY
-
In 2001 we became the company we are today. We sold our breweries and left the pub and bar business, refocusing on the growth areas of hotels and restaurants. Our reinvention as the UK’s leading hospitality business naturally coincided with the ending of this country’s brewing and pub-owning tradition , started by Samuel Whitbread over 250 years earlier.
-
TRUE TO OUR FOUNDING SPIRIT
-
Although our core businesses have changed over the years, we remain true to Samuel Whitbread’s founding spirit to put our people first and customers at the heart of everything we do, all the while looking at ways to innovate to stay ahead.
-
[Source: http://www.whitbread.co.uk/about-us/history-of-whitbread.html]
-
- 6.
The location of the Hook Norton Brewery Co. near Oxford, a small independent brewery also visited, is justified in similar terms: ‘The all important water supply on which all good brewing depends was available on the site and is the same as used in the brewery today, drawn from wells underneath the present buildings.’ (Eddershaw 1999:6)
- 7.
The sign also advertises the Bass Museum as ‘Burton’s biggest attraction’.
- 8.
Royal Doulton was granted this privilege by HM King Edward VII.
- 9.
From Coors Newsletter, Jubilee Visit Commemorative Edition (p. 4)
- 10.
Ken Thomas, former archivist at Courage Ltd., personal interview
- 11.
In 1984, the town museum in Burton closed, bequeathing its collection on loan to the Bass Museum.
- 12.
See Nakamaki (Chap. 7, this volume) for details.
- 13.
From the former website (now defunct) of the Bass Museum.
- 14.
See Nakamaki (Chap. 7, this volume)
- 15.
Established in Burton-on-Trent in 1744 by William Worthington, Worthington’s had been a prominent Burton brewery until its merger with Bass in 1926. Popular Worthington brands include ‘White Shield’, an India pale ale brewed by the Museum Brewery Company, and ‘1744’, a homage to Worthington’s founding.
- 16.
The content has since been removed from the relevant webpage [http://www.coorsbrewers.com/Default.asp?Page_ID=300&Parent_ID=249], which now reflects Coors new status as Molson Coors, with the message, ‘A lot has changed: But sharing a beer with friends remains one of life’s simple pleasures’.
- 17.
Nicknamed ‘Dictionary Johnson’ and perhaps best known in his day as the author of the first English language dictionary (published 1755), Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) was also a great wit and bon vivant whose gatherings with his literary contemporaries, most notably members of the Club (founded 1764 and later renamed the ‘Literary Club’), were recorded and immortalised by his friend and biographer, James Boswell (1740–1795), in Boswell’s The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791). Johnson first met the Thrales, who owned and operated the Anchor Brewery for two generations between 1729 and 1781, in January 1765, eventually becoming almost a part of their family .
- 18.
This is consistent with Anne Mager’s recognition, in her account of heritage in South African Breweries (SAB), of the principle that ‘…a brand required a past with meaning for the present’ (2006:161). See also Mager (2005) on branding and heritage in SAB.
- 19.
From the point perspective of archivists and curators, it also raises a wider question regarding the nature of the relationship between commerce and curatorship, discussed at a recent conference of the Association of Independent Museums (AIM) hosted at the Bass Museum in May 2003 and entitled Margin and Mission: balancing commerce and curatorship.
- 20.
http://www.culture24.org.uk/history-and-heritage/art18619 [formerly: http://www.24hourmuseum.org.uk/let_gfx_en/LET8621.html]. Accessed at 30 January 2019
- 21.
http://www.nationalbrewerycentre.co.uk/museum. Accessed at 30 January 2019
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Kelly, W.H. (2019). Brewing Heritage: Issues in the Management of Corporate Heritage in the Brewing Industry in Britain. In: Nakamaki, H., Hioki, K., Sumihara, N., Mitsui, I. (eds) Enterprise as a Carrier of Culture. Translational Systems Sciences, vol 16. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-7193-6_8
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