Sunday Times (Perth, WA : 1902 - 1954), Sunday 17 December 1939, page 31


Progress of Kalgoorlie Brewing Company Ltd.

Fine Record On I

Goldfields

and At Merredin

PROGRESS continues to be the keynote of the Kalgoorlie Brewing

Co. whose equipment at Kalgoorlie and Merredin represents the most modern in Australia today.

The company's success over a period Of 43 years is due to three things-the business acumen of the late managing director. Mr. James Hurtle Cum tins (1904-1936). the high efficiency and un-failing loyalty of the staff, and the quality of the article P>- duced.

.f The story of the Kalgoorlie Brewery, % the only survivor of 19 L. ïweries o -e A trading on the eastern goldfields, is

one? of continued progress.

The company was floated on Febru-

ary 24. isa6, the shareholders being: I V. L. Solomon, merchant Adelaide; R. fagan, speculator, K !¿v liu: I.S. Brewer, speculator. Kalgoorlie; J. P. Lee. publican, Kalgoorlie; E. S. Solo-mon, agent, Kalgoorlie; G. Layland, mining asent. Kalgoorlie; F. Witte-noom, mining agent. Kalgoorlie.

The capital of the company was £12,000. divided into 24,000 shares of 10/ each. The first secretary was Mr. »»-HF. Jack. He was succeeded by Mr.

A. R. Linnet, who gave place to Mr. Ç. A- Nelson, lt is to Mr. Nelson that tue i"ini«>ny uvves us well-known tn "i mark, "Big K." In December, 1910, Mr. H. L.. Barnard was appointed secre"tary, which position he held until suc-ceeded in 1933 by Mr. Percy Johnson.

During the infancy of the -company the late Mr. R. D. McKenzie, M.L.C., was chairman of directors, his co-di-rectors at the time being the late J. H. Cummins, the late S. E. Hocking, and the late J. J. Dwyer. Later Mr. Mc-Kenzie retired from active association with the company.

The late Mr. J. H. Cummins was appointed managing director in 1904. He immediately threw tl.j whole of his energy into the deter-mination to make the Kalgoorlie Brewery the most successful br-iness of its kind on the goldfields.

New brewing methods, such as the tnen novel chilling and Altering of beer, were introduced, and up-io-date items of plant purchased, with the re-sult that the business of the company began to leap ahead, so much so that, In 1908. the directors passed a resolu-tion expressing appreciation of the valuable services rendered by Mr. J. H. Cummins during this period, and that he had brought the brewery from a critical state to a sound and dividend .paying basis.

Big Purchases

The financial affairs of the company continued to develop, with the result that, in 1912, the Lion Brewery of Cool-gardie, with five freeholds, viz., Den-ver City, Australia, Westralia, Victoria,

and United Service hotels, was pur-chased by Mr Cummins.

With commendable foresight, the absorption of the Langsford Brew-ery followed in 1918, and one year later in the interests of the Union Brewery were taken over.

The directors then decided that iL would be beneficial to the company to move the headquarters of the brewery from the premises then occupied in Porter-street to those of the Union Brewery in Brookman-street, as the establishment there enabled them to substitute the then modern system of skimming for the old Burton Union system, which had been considered the best up to that time.

The introduction of this new plant and method further increased the pop-ularity of the already favorably known "Big T£" ale, and in 1920 the directors were able to negotiate the purchase erf the Boulder City Brewery.

Years of Progress

During the years that followed the success of the Kalgoorlie Brewery was further consolidated, and its products were well and favorably known throughout Australia.

Over the last decade the trend of brewing, the world over, baa graduually passed down from the top to bot-

tom fermentation.

When this demand for the lager type of brew was made by the public of the aoldfields, the direc-tors of the Kalgoorlie Brewery, fol-lowing the established progressive tradition of their company, planned th- erection of a modern lager

brewery.

For 40 years the company has sup-plied its customers with a drink which had never failed to satisfy. The n>w brewery, therefore, bad to be of a type to produce only the best of lagers.

With this ideal in view, the directors invited quotes and specifications from the leading brewery engineers of Aus-tralia. England, Switzerland, Germany and America. After mature considera-tion of the plans, particulars, and ad-vice received from the world's fore-most technicians, it was determined to place the contracts where the Lest equipment could be obtained, irrespec-tive of expense involved.

The result was a modern plant which has been eminently successful, and tile comnany is to be complimented on its further expansion at Merredin, where the new Westland Lager is being pro-

duced.