You cannot buy or fabricate history. It’s something you either have or you don’t. We are lucky that we have been brewing since 1849 and have over 160 years of history and experience! Joseph Holt was born in 1813 in Unsworth, Manchester and started his career at Harrison’s Strangeways Brewery. Along with his wife, Catherine Perry, they soon opened their own micro-brewery on Oak Street in central Manchester. The beer must have been good as they opened a bigger brewery, Ducie Bridge Brewery in 1855 and moved to our current site on Empire Street, central Manchester in 1860.

Back then, our Joseph Holt Bitter was the backbone of our brewing but now our recipe book includes 17 incredible Holt’s brews.

Joseph quickly started to establish a pub estate and bought his first one in Eccles, The Wellington Hotel. Over the decades, the family have retained the key traditions whilst embracing new techniques and trends. Today we own 127 pubs in the North West of England and sell our products to over 350 independent pub owners and national brewer. Our Chief Executive, Richard Kershaw is the fifth generation of the Holt family and his daughter, Jane currently heads up our Marketing Department. We truly are a family run business.

Without ‘blowing our own trumpet’, we are so proud of our achievements over the years. Not only in the beers we brew, that have won an array of awards in recent years (18 in 2016/17 alone), but in our guests and their communities who show us such loyalty and support. Giving back is hugely important, so we love to fundraise in our pubs and here at the brewery! In fact, we are the only company in the UK to have won both the British Beer & Pub Associations, Heart of the Community Award and the All Party Parliamentary Group’s, National Pub Aid Award.

For export enquiries contact John Thompson. Tel: 07769 143903 Email: john.thompson@joseph-holt.com