The Carlsberg Story: Founders, Foundations, and Fortunes

Intro -- Preface -- About This Book -- References -- Contents -- 1 Introduction -- 1.1 You Can't Be a Real Country Unless You Have a Beer -- 1.2 Shareholders and Foundations -- References -- 2 1847-Foundation and Founding Fathers -- 2.1 For Thinking Brewers -- 2.2 A Brewer for His Time -- 2.3 Augustus -- 2.4 Tuborg A/S -- 2.5 The Ørsted Monument -- 2.6 The Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters and the Carlsberg Foundation -- 2.7 Pasteur, His Beer Studies, and Jacobsen -- 2.8 The Carlsberg Laboratory -- 2.9 Frederiksborg Castle -- 2.10 Laboremus Pro Patria -- 2.11 Jacobsen's Legacy -- 2.12 An Easter Morning -- 2.13 1 October 1888 -- 2.14 Carl Jacobsen and New Carlsberg -- 2.15 The Agreement of 1903 -- 2.16 Holm's Foundation -- References -- 3 1914-Carlsberg "Hof" or "Green" Tuborg? -- 3.1 Erslev-The Visionary -- 3.2 Complicated Cohabitation Between Wars -- 3.3 Occupation and Postwar Settlement -- 3.4 "The Transitional Figure" -- 3.5 Carlsberg and Tuborg -- References -- 4 1955-Towards Merger -- 4.1 The Dictator -- 4.2 The Great Beer Wedding -- 4.3 Ossis and Wessis -- 4.4 Carlsberg for 150 Years -- 4.5 The Breweries' Game of Monopoly -- Reference -- 5 2000-From Regional Brewery to the International Top -- 5.1 Going West or North? -- 5.2 Ashlad and the Norwegian Troll-Orkla -- 5.3 BBH-First Act -- 5.4 Half and Half -- 5.5 Ashlad Runs Off with the Gold -- 5.6 In Search of a Partner -- 5.7 First Countdown -- 5.8 Going Dutch -- 5.9 The FMCG Era -- 5.10 Second Countdown: From Capital to Votes -- 5.11 Beer and the Science Behind It -- 5.12 The Carlsberg Foundation and Other Commercial Foundations -- 5.13 Pursue Perfection -- References -- Dramatis Personae -- Jacobsen Family -- The Carlsberg Foundation -- Carlsberg -- Others -- Archives -- Bibliography.

This book offers a comprehensive business history of one of the largest global brewing companies. By combining industrial history with insights from corporate management and strategy, it reveals the success story of a family-owned company that has achieved a market-leading position worldwide. The author provides deep insights into the founding of the modern Danish brewery by J.C. Jacobsen Carlsberg in 1847, the company's subsequent rapid success, the relationship between brewing and science, and the importance of the Danish scientist H.C. Ørsted in establishing this relationship. Readers will also learn about the founder's son, Carl Jacobsen, and the tensions between him and his father; the establishment of the Carlsberg Foundation in 1876; and the transfer of J.C. Jacobsen's breweries to the foundation in 1888, which makes it likely the oldest managing foundation in Europe. Further chapters cover business agreements concerning the Danish beer market in the 20th century, the relations with Tuborg Ltd., the period of occupation in 1940-45, and how Carlsberg finally merged with - but in reality took over -Tuborg in 1970 and missed out on international business opportunities in the 1980s and 1990s. It also examines why Carlsberg has pursued an aggressive expansion strategy since 2000, e.g. by taking over its competitor Scottish and Newcastle together with Heineken in 2008, and has now become the third largest brewery in the world. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in the history of brewing and the success factors of one of the leading global breweries.