The Regent Road brewery was founded in 1835 and purchased by William Groves and his son’s friend Arthur Whitnall in 1868. By 1899, when the company was registered, they had amassed nearly 600 pubs. The company was taken over by Greenall Whitley in 1962, as part of that company’s expansion plan.. Closure came in 1972. In later years the reputation of their beers, which were the bedrock of the company’s initial expansion, began to suffer.