Beer once brewed in Abingdon will be brewed in Bedford from next year
In a surprise move given its wide reach and popularity, the Old Speckled Hen brands that originated at Morland in Abingdon have been sold by Greene King to Damm UK, the British arm of Barcelona-based independent family brewer S.A. Damm of Estrella Damm fame.
Old Speckled Hen and its spin-off brands Old Golden Hen, Old Crafty Hen, Old Master Hen and Low Alcohol Old Speckled Hen will continue to be brewed by GK at Bury St Edmunds until June next year. Then they will move to Eagle brewery in Bedford, where Damm operates the former Charles Wells brewery.
Nick Mackenzie, CEO of Greene King, said: “We are proud to have built Old Speckled Hen into one of the nation’s favourite ales over the last 25 years and are delighted to have secured a partner in Estrella Damm who will continue to brew the ales in the UK.”
This begs the question of why GK sold Old Speckled Hen, having acquired it in 1999 from Morland which it closed down the following year. It is still widely available in GK’s Oxfordshire pubs and is one of three GK brands in the top ten cask ales by sales volume in 2025, alongside Abbot and IPA.
But at the same time it announced a new strategy to concentrate on “on trade” sales via pubs rather than “off trade” via retail or export. It will no longer sell bottled, canned or packaged beers from next June, although Damm will continue to sell Old Speckled Hen this way. GK’s new £40 million brewery in Bury St Edmunds is due to open at the same time.
Writing in What’s Brewing, CAMRA’s Roger Protz called the move “a shock decision” resulting from the “rapacious profiteering of giant supermarkets”. He added: “Old Speckled Hen is one of Greene King’s major brands but the income from sales to the off-trade is tiny as a result of the deep discounts demanded by the retailers.
“Greene King owns a massive estate of 2,600 pubs, restaurants and hotels. It supplies those outlets with draught and packaged beers with no middle men creaming off the profits. Its two main cask brands, IPA and Abbot, are popular in its pubs and also in the wider on-trade, meaning free-trade pubs or those owned by other brewers or pub companies that allow their tenants to sell guest beers.”