It's a family thing (William Lees Jones)

This issue we chat to William Lees Jones, managing director of Manchester brewer JW Lees

How did you first get involved in beer?
With the silver spoon when I was born!
I started formally as marketing manager of JW Lees when I was 28 and eventually became managing director in 2000.

What is fashionable in beer at the moment?
Anything so cold that you can’t taste that it’s beer. The UK beer market is very sad since it continues to decline, especially in the on-trade, despite the continued improvement of the British pub. Maybe fashion is the problem – that draught beer is out of fashion and that people prefer to drink cheap cans of lager at home rather than going to the pub.

What do you think we’ll be drinking in five years’ time?
I live in the hope that it will be interesting beers and that pubs will go through a revival when the ban on smoking in public places comes in July.

The reality is that the pub needs to change and that so-called ‘heavy drinkers’ will stay at home and so pubs will need to attract more healthy-living people to come into them and that means that pubs will become less beercentric (which will in turn perpetuate the fall in beer sales).

What’s the best thing about working in the beer business?
Great people (and being paid to go to the pub!) What has been your biggest contribution to the beer business?
Being part of building the JW Lees business into a great sixth generation family business.

What is your best beer memory?

All the best beer memories seem to end up with a blur!

At a glance
Favourite company beer
JW Lees Cask- Conditioned Bi.....

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By Sally Toms

Section : Last Shout

Page number : 67