The story
Antecedents
The original forerunner of the company was Brown Campbell & Co, the company of Logan Campbell and William Brown who established the Hobson Bridge Brewery in Auckland in 1840. By 1897 it was the largest brewery in the North Island if not the country. In May 1897 Brown Campbell & Co amalgamated with Louis Ehrenfried's Albert Brewery, which he had bought in 1878, to form Campbell and Ehrenfried. The new company was managed by Arthur Myers, Ehrenfried's nephew. In 1914 Campbell and Ehrenfried merged with the Great Northern Brewery, which owned the Lion brand. In 1923 ten breweries amalgamated to form New Zealand Breweries. Campbell and Ehrenfried merged its breweries into New Zealand Breweries but remained a separate company. Douglas Myers, grandson of Arthur Myers, became CEO of Campbell and Ehrenfried in 1965.
The northern division of New Zealand Breweries adopted the name Lion Breweries in 1977. Campbell and Ehrenfried bought 19.9 per cent of Lion Breweries in 1981. By the late 1980s, New Zealand Breweries had developed into one of New Zealand's largest companies. In 1988 Lion Breweries took over LD Nathan & Co, New Zealand's largest retailer, which at the time owned Woolworths NZ, to form Lion Nathan, listed on both the Australian and New Zealand stock exchanges under the symbol LNN. The same year, Woolworths' general merchandise division was rebranded DEKA, with ownership transferred to the Farmers Trading Company in 1992. In 1990 it became an Australasian business when it established a major presence in Australia by securing management control of Bond Corporation’s brewing assets, including the Tooheys Brewery in Sydney and Castlemaine Perkins in Brisbane. In 1998 Douglas Myers sold most of his 16 percent share in Lion Nathan to Kirin Brewery Company of Japan.
Foundation
In 2005, Lion Nathan made a takeover bid for the independent South Australian Coopers Brewery. The takeover was strongly opposed by Coopers' management, and was rejected at an Extraordinary General Meeting when 93.4% of the shareholders voted in favour of permanently removing the "3rd tier purchasing rights" of Lion Nathan, effectively preventing any current or future takeover bid. In September 2009, shareholders voted in favour of a complete takeover by Kirin Holdings.
Lion was established in October 2009 under the name Lion Nathan National Foods when Kirin purchased the brewer Lion Nathan and merged the business with National Foods, which it had owned since 2007.
The company was 46% owned by Kirin, with the difference made up by Australian and New Zealand share funds.
2010s
In 2011, the company changed its name to Lion, one company with three businesses: Lion Beer, Spirits, and Wine Australia; Lion, Beer, Spirits and Wine NZ; with National Foods becoming a Melbourne-based subsidiary called Lion Dairy & Drinks. Lion Dairy & Drinks was acquired by Bega in November 2020.
In June 2013, the company launched the Tap King draught beer product that is sold with a CO2 gas chamber so that consumers can drink draught beer at home. Lionel Richie appeared in a television commercial to promote the device and reportedly received A$$1.5 million to appear in the promotional campaign. The introduction of the Tap King caused controversy, due to the perceived impact upon alcohol venues. Concerns were raised in regard to lower patronage rates for venues due to a greater incentive for consumers to drink beer in home environments.
Present
As of 2020 the Australian arm of the company is registered in Sydney as Lion-Beer Spirits & Wine Pty Ltd, a body corporate with multiple business names registered to it, including the Lion Nathan Australia, South Australian Brewing Company, James Boag Brewing, Byron Bay Brewery, Hahn Brewing Company, James Squire Brewery, Castlemaine, Little Creatures Brewery, and others.
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Lion New Zealand is the largest alcoholic beverage company in the country, employing 1000 people. The company markets beers such as Speight's, Steinlager, Mac's, Emerson's, Stella Artois and Corona, big names in spirits such as Smirnoff, Baileys, Bacardi, and Johnnie Walker, and many wines.
From Wikipedia’s article on Lion (Australasian company), shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5