Paul Beadle, the new man in charge of Morrells brewery, was in no mood for beer.

As photographers urged him to toast the company's future, the new chief executive declined to hold up a pint.

Maybe his announcement that Oxford's only brewery is to close next month had put him off his ale. For he had just set out his vision for the newly created Morrells of Oxford - whose beer will be produced outside the city.

With Michael Cannon, the tycoon who bought Morrells, concentrating on his burger and property business in America, Mr Beadle is undoubtedly the man who will be pulling the strings, if not the pints, from now on.

While Mr Cannon's career is a rags to riches adventure worthy of the pen of Jeffrey Archer, Mr Beadle, 41, has been in the pub trade all his working life. He joined Courage in the 1980s, working as an area manager, before moving to Inn Leisure in 1987 - the company built up by Mr Cannon from a single pub to an estate of 40 outlets. This was to be the start of his friendship with Cannon, and he was there when Inn Leisure was sold to Greenalls for £214m in 1993.

Mr Beadle went on to become operations director with Greenalls, where he oversaw the growth of the pub estate from 450 managed outlets to in excess of 1,000. So what now?.

Morrells drinkers and staff marked the £48m sale of the family firm with a wake and book of condolence at the Plasterers Arms, Marston Road, Oxford, at the weekend. Plasterers' landlord Chris Doyle opened a book of condolence in memory of "Morrells Brewery Ltd, which died on October 16, aged 216 years". But at his first press conference in charge, Mr Beadle's message was that Morrells has a future, not just a past. Of course as he admitted the company could just as easily have been called the Plastic Orang-utan. But Mr Beadle has been in the beer business long enough to know the importance of tradition and brand.

Mr Beadle said: "We are here to build this business, not to dispose of it. The Morrells name has been synonymous with Oxfordshire for the last 216 years. The business has a distinguished history. We are now creating an exciting future."

In a few days he will announce the name of the medium sized brewer who will produce Morrells brands under contract. Instead of trying to sell the 132-pub estate, he would be looking to acquire new Pubs. "I can't say that we are not selling any of them. We have to leave some doors open. We may dispose of some at the bottom end."

But the new boss clearly hinted that the look of many local pubs will have to change. "Pubs have got to match their market rather than the market matching the pubs."

As he prepared for a second round of interviews with staff which will determine who leaves and who stays after the Lion Brewery's closure, he added: "This is a very exciting time for us. We have a good collection of pubs in a number of prime locations."

Whether he has a pint in too many of them remains to be seen.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.