Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, May 26, 1995                   TAG: 9505260065
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A-15   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: DIRK BEVERIDGE ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: LONDON                                 LENGTH: Medium

LONDON BREWERY PUTS STOCKHOLDERS ON THE WAGON

Once it was the only sure bet on the London Stock Exchange.

One share of Young and Co.'s Brewery PLC would cost just 5 pounds (about $8) and meant a permanent ticket to the company's annual meeting, where the food was good and the beer and wine flowed.

As hundreds of people figured this out, the Young's meetings evolved into raucous parties where investors might guzzle 10 pints or more of the company's beer. Some walked out with bottles of wine stashed in briefcases or whole hams and turkeys hidden under overcoats.

But, like all good things, this quirky bit of corporate Britain has come to an end, without a last call. After years of trying to control the revelry, chairman John Young decided the next meeting in July will be sober: all business, no beer.

``Disastrous, isn't it?'' said Iain Loe, research manager for the Campaign for Real Ale, a beer drinkers' advocacy group. ``I wonder if the shareholders will sell their shares.''

Young's figures any reaction from the tiny investors with massive thirsts will be less of a disaster than what had been taking place.

In a letter that stockholders began receiving Thursday, Chairman Young called the bingeing ``unjustifiable and unfair.'' He called the new no-refreshment policy ``of benefit to all shareholders.''

The tipplers will disagree. Although the annual meetings were short and questions sparse, the beer lovers typically began squirming after a few minutes, then started murmuring it was time to drink.

One annual meeting lasted nine minutes, then erupted into cheers as hundreds of shareholders lunged for the beer.

``Rather unseemly. Not at all like English gentlemen,'' Young's spokesman Michael Hardman said.

``It was legendary what you could get away with at the Young's meetings,'' said Martin Hawkins, a brewery industry analyst at the London brokerage Greig Middleton and Co.

Hawkins said the new austerity will have no noticeable impact on Young's business, which earned 5.3 million pounds or about $8.5 million last year on revenues of 72 million pounds.

The problem at Young's began escalating years ago when word got out about lavish shareholder parties, featuring not just beer but lobster and fine whiskies. For the price of one share, how could you lose?

Attendance at the meetings swelled, once drawing an astounding 29 percent of all shareholders. Young's kept seeking out larger, more expensive London venues.

Last year, 658 shareholders - or 12 percent of the total - showed up. About 200 owned just one share each, and the vast majority had fewer than 50 shares, but Young's ended up paying 38 pounds per head for investors who held only about 1 percent of the company's voting rights.

The chairman finally locked up the bar and suggested shareholders go to a nearby Young's pub to quench their thirst.