Lives in Cricket No 42 - Frank and George Mann

109 Chapter Nineteen Take-overs and New Responsibilities The seventies brought massive changes to the professional life of George Mann. In 1971 Watney Mann wanted to take over the East Anglian brewer Truman, Hanbury and Buxton, owners of 986 public houses and 138 off- licences, but found themselves in competition with Grand Metropolitan, the hotel and property group. After the exchange of ever-increasing bids between the two companies, the Watney Mann final offer of £47 million was topped by their competitors. Looking to expand elsewhere, Watney Mann quickly acquired the wine and spirit company, International Distillers and Vintners, known as IDV. 57 But in 1972 they found themselves the subject of a £400 million take-over bid from an unwelcome suitor, Grand Metropolitan, a property conglomerate run by Maxwell Joseph. 58 George Mann and the other Watney Mann directors fought tooth and nail for four months to persuade shareholders to keep the company independent, but the final bid of £435 million proved too attractive to be rejected. In 1974 Watney Mann was merged with Truman, Hanbury and Buxton, and in 1979 the Albion Brewery itself was closed and converted into shops and offices. The connection of George Mann with the family brewery was finally ended although it had ended many years earlier for his brother, John Pelham, who had been appointed managing director of all Unilever business in New Zealand in 1954, where he had developed Birds Eye frozen foods, and then returned to England in 1959 as chairman and managing director to develop another Unilever acquisition, the toothpaste business, D. and W.Gibbs, into the Gibbs Pepsodent company. In 1964 he joined United Biscuits and later became a director of the United States part of Barclays Bank and a member of the British North American Council in 1977. He no longer played cricket at any level but regularly answered calls from Jim Swanton to play golf for The Arabs and when a committee was formed in 1967 he organised the first golf weekend for members at Royal St George’s in Kent. This became an annual event but when he moved to New York in 1980, he handed the responsibility over to his son James who also took over as treasurer from 1985 to 2014. 59 Throughout the period of multiple mergers and hostile take-overs in the brewing industry George Mann had continued to keep his connection to 57 Among the IDV businesses were the Croft’s sherry, Gilbey’s gin, J and B whisky and Smirnoff vodka concerns. 58 Among the Grand Metropolitan businesses were Berni Inns, Express Dairies and Mecca bingo. Ironically, Joseph was brought up just round the corner from the Mann Crossman brewery at Whitechapel. 59 John Pelham Mann died in New Orleans (Louisiana), on 8 September 2002; the statistical appendix to this volume gives a resumé of his career as a first-class cricketer.