Adnams chair stands down after almost 50 years with brewer

The chairman of Adnams has quit the brewer with immediate effect for unspecified health reasons.

Jonathan Adnams announced his intention in June to stand down from the Suffolk-based company before its annual shareholder meeting next year.

He has worked for the business, which was founded in 1872 by his ancestors George and Ernest Adnams, since starting as a brewing engineer in 1975.

Mr Adnams eventually joined the firm’s board in 1988 before becoming its managing director in 1997 and then chairman nine years later.

During his tenure as chair, the group was the first in the UK to make a carbon-neutral beer, East Green, and legally open a distillery inside a brewery.

It also created the bestselling low-alcohol beer Ghost Ship 0.5% and developed its first cider, Wild Wave, by mixing English bittersweet and dessert apples.

Adnams said he was ‘saddened’ to be leaving ‘earlier than planned’ but would still ‘continue to champion the business from the sidelines’.

He added: ‘Adnams has always been a lot more than just a name to me. The success of the company has been one of the biggest priorities in my life for almost half a century, and I’m immensely proud of its achievements.’

Mr Adnams is the latest of the brewer’s senior executives to leave this year, following the departure of chief operating officer Dr Karen Hester, who spent 36 years with Adnams, and chief executive Andy Wood, who stood down in June.

Non-executive director Simon Townsend, who was previously chief executive of Ei Group, once Britain’s largest pub operator, has been appointed interim chairman.

Townsend hailed Jonathan Adnams’ contribution to the firm, saying his ‘personal commitment to innovation’ had been ‘instrumental in building the foundations we continue to benefit from today’.

Alongside his role at Adnams, Townsend chairs independent brewer Wadworth and holds non-executive directorships at JW Lees Brewery and Cote Restaurants.

His promotion to chairman follows a few challenging years for the company caused partly by weaker demand for cask ale, squeezed consumer incomes, and soaring energy prices driving up brewing costs.

Adnams also said trade had been impacted by interest rate hikes, industrial unrest and former Prime Minister Liz Truss’s controversial ‘mini-budget’.

It blamed inflationary pressures for seeing its operating losses more than double to £2.5million in 2023, its fourth consecutive annual loss.

In February, the group confirmed it was speaking with advisers about raising funds to help secure its financial future.

Among the suggestions the business was considering included ‘a fresh injection of capital’ or the disposal of some freehold assets.