Humphrey’s world: how the Samuel Smith beer baron built Britain’s strangest pub chain – The Guardian

Over the past four decades, Humphrey Smith has almost singlehandedly shaped Samuel Smith Old Brewery. The value of his company’s holdings is staggering. In 2015, the London Economic website estimated it at £750m. Allowing for inflation, that would now be more than £1.1bn. Given the extensive land and property holdings, two operational breweries, export business, pub estate and other businesses, that does not seem unrealistic. Yet it is what Smith chooses to do with these assets that is most extraordinary. For he now presides over a vast empire of shuttered pubs and grand, empty buildings that generate no income. It is a strange kind of businessman who avidly accrues property, only to let much of it moulder – but Smith has a strong claim to being Britain’s strangest businessman.