Unfortunately Whitbread – a member of one of the UK’s leading brewing families, and now a consultant to a new specialist fund, the Taverners Trust, dedicated to investing in public houses – is wrong. The brew he was tasting was Shepherd Neame, a distinctive beer made in Faversham in Kent. Whitbread and Christopher Fishwick, a fund manager at Aberdeen Trust, which is arranging the new fund, were participating in Euromoney’s special beer challenge, launched to commemorate the first beer fund in the UK. The trust has already raised £15 million from those who love beer all over the City. Whitbread learnt how to brew from Peter Scully, the master brewer of Ipswich-based Tolly Cobbold. His father, Colonel Whitbread, ran one of the UK’s top four brewers, Whitbread, until 1968. Billy Whitbread’s financial expertise was gained running the Whitbread Investment Company, which obtained 16% annual net asset growth over 10 years. Billy spent much of the 1980s negotiating with regional brewers, and says a lot of the people he was negotiating with are now running the companies. He has been instructed to visit two or three pubs a week, to gain market intelligence. Did you know, he says, that the trend towards bars with large-windowed facades is aimed at attracting women, who prefer to see inside a pub before entering? Women buy higher-margin drinks, he adds. Back in the tavern, he judges that the second pint is Adnams, a mild East Anglian beer, not highly hopped. Wrong again, it’s Brakspear. On the third pint he detects a highly sulphurous smell and deduces it must be Pedigree – his favourite tipple – before changing his mind as a result of the yeast. Euromoney awards half a point for being so close – it was Pedigree. He explains the trust will also invest in regional brewers, of which there are around 60 in the UK. Only 25% of the portfolio will be in illiquid stocks. The final beer is 6X, he says, because of its rounded taste and combination of hops. In fact, it’s Fuggles. At that point he laughs, he’s scored half a point out of five, and says that he will not choose his stocks by “drinking the beer”. He is very much a “fundamentals man – reports and accounts”. The challenge ends. Fishwick, the fund manager – who says the fund is part of Abtrust’s strategy of “getting more and more specialized” – scores a straight zero. SI
