ABSTRACT
This chapter describes some of the practical difficulties of studying enterprise behaviour in the brewing industry, examines the spatial structure of the industry in 1976 and considers the aspatial changes that have taken place. In 1976, the seven largest brewing enterprises in the United Kingdom controlled 56 brewing plants, with total sales of 32.6 million barrels. An attraction of the brewing industry is that tied outlets and growth by acquisition provide useful surrogates for the growth of market areas and plant space. The very conservative and inbred nature of the industry dictated a strategy of more of the same, which in turn indicated acquisition as the principal method of growth because of the tied house system. The chapter examines the major data sources, the constraints imposed by the characteristics of the industry and some methodological problems presented in analysing the data.
