Well it had to happen, South Australia finally loses it's major brewery which makes the iconic West End brand of beer.
It's interesting how the media has stated that this brewery is what West End is all about considering it's actually the old Southwark Brewery that was taken over by the West End Brewery that was originally located at the West end of Hindley Street. The brand West End took over everything that Southwark did and all the brands that they produced at the time.
Southwark was a huge brand of bitter beer in Adelaide and was a much bigger brand than West End Bitter ever was, but slowly "Southwark" beer known as "Green Death" had very much dwindled in sales as has West End Bitter and Draught and Lager beers have very much become the norm over the past 30 or so years. The switch to Lager beers was accelerated by the "Fosters" brand when they sponsored the Australian Formula 1 in Adelaide.
Anyway that seems to be the way of manufacturing now and it's all about only producing in one location and shipping outwards opposed to producing in many more localised places. General Motors-Holden is a testament to this strategic way of manufacturing. They used to have 2 plants in every state and ended up with one sole manufacturing centre located in Elizabeth, Adelaide. The only exception to that situation was the Victorian Government throwing bucket loads of money to retain engine manufacturing in Melbourne. Had that not happened the engine plant would've also been located in Adelaide which really made far more sense.
Cheers, BB.
Below is the Main entrance of the West End Brewery with the Famous Chimney adorning the the prominent Red & White colours of the North Adelaide Football Club on top and Norwood's underneath as the loser of the 2018 Grand Final.
I live a 24 Hour lifestyle, but every now and again I seem to fall asleep, well at least that's what my wife tells me.
Anyway that seems to be the way of manufacturing now and it's all about only producing in one location and shipping outwards opposed to producing in many more localised places. G'day BB, Yes, we grew up in a world with allegiances to things like cars, sport, food, petrol, beer, and ... mowers.
What was that Holden jingle from the day ...
I was a member of Ampol's 'Jolly Swagman Club' and I received a birthday card for my eighth birthday. Nothing after that. I was forgotten ... It was at that point I started to become disillusioned with brand allegiance.
You make a great point about manufacturing. Brand loyalty requires some community allegiance - some local identity.
The mega corporations do not seem to understand that.
Sadly I expect we will see a lot more of this over the next 12 months or so in particular in Victoria. Hi Jack, Things may not be as bad as it seems as Ampol has just been dug from their grave so you may still get that birthday card. I'm not sure if brand loyalty is that important in Aus but many years ago I heard that in America that over 5 million people follow Nascar racing every week religiously and they will only use whatever products that are advertised on the car they follow, be it Coke, Pepsi, Nulon, or maybe even Ampol. To me advertising doesn't influence what I buy but it obviously works because manufacturers pour billions of dollars into it every year
Hi NormK, CyberJack and Bonnar_Bloke, I sometimes get dismayed why some brands appear to stop advertising. Brand awareness has to be maintained and if rivals keep appearing periodically in television and radio advertisements and they do not, they shouldn't be surprised that sales decline. I notice the Korean car makers as well as that electronics giant, keep putting out attention getting ads with striking and innovative imagery and music, just as the Japanese did in the 80s, while the others are far more in the background in media, despite the actual products themselves being nothing extraordinary to current standards. Why do the longer established brands continue to rest on their laurels, apart from Mitsubishi with their successful and catchy "living out the back of the car" jingle. They may have the better product but we all know the power of hype and the danger of people falling for it and shifting to the rival's product even if it isn't as good.
Ahh, if only victa had kept producing the thumblatch catcher series, they would be in better shape today!
I goofed up a bit there with 5 million Americans following Nascar, it is 50 million, hard to comprehend in Aus so you can understand why the advertising space on those cars is so important to the sponsors
