Beamish & Crawford, the Cork-based brewer, is taking over management, sales, distribution and marketing of the Scottish & Newcastle brand portfolio in Northern Ireland.

Beamish & Crawford has been a wholly-owned subsidiary of S&N since 1995. Alf Smiddy, managing director of Beamish & Crawford, said: "We look forward to realising the benefits by adopting a highly focused business and organisational approach to an all-Ireland strategy for the group as we work closely with customers and trading partners in Northern Ireland."