John Smith's Brewery

John Smith's Brewery (John Smith Ltd) is a brewing company that traces its origins to the founding of the Backhouse & Hartley brewery in 1778 at Tadcaster in North Yorkshire, England. John Smith purchased the brewery in 1847. The company grew to be one of the largest regional brewers in the country, owning over 1800 outlets for their beer. The company was taken over by Courage in 1970 who extended distribution of the beer nationwide. Courage were taken over by Scottish & Newcastle in 1995, by which time John Smith's was the highest selling ale brand in the country. S&N were taken over by Heineken in 2008.

The brewery is known for producing John Smith's Bitter, which is the highest selling ale brand in the United Kingdom, and the sixth highest selling beer overall. The majority of John Smith's sales are of the nitrogenated Extra Smooth variant, although a cask conditioned variant is also available, particularly in the beer's Yorkshire heartland.

Although the company is no longer independent, the John Smith's Tadcaster Brewery site has been maintained, and it remains the location where the majority of John Smith's is still brewed, as well as brewing a range of Heineken UK products.

John Smith's became well known for a series of highly successful "No Nonsense"-themed television advertising campaigns, featuring the dour Yorkshireman "Arkwright" during the 1970s and 1980s (shown only in the South of England), followed by the comedians Jack Dee during the 1990s and Peter Kay since 2002. In addition, it is the largest commercial sponsor of horse racing in the UK, and has sponsored the Grand National since 2005, although this is due to end after 2013.