Entrance of John Smiths, Tadcaster brewery, High Street, Tadcaster, North Yorkshire, England, UK, LS24 9SA

John Smith's Brewery in Tadcaster, North Yorkshire, England, produces beers including John Smith's, the highest selling bitter in the United Kingdom since the mid-1990s. The majority of John Smith's sales are of the nitrogenated Extra Smooth product, although a cask conditioned variant is available nationally. A stronger variant called Magnet is also available in the North East of England. John Smith's Cask and Magnet are produced under licence by Cameron's in Hartlepool. John Smith acquired the Backhouse & Hartley brewery in 1852. Following a series of acquisitions in the post-World War II period, the company became one of the largest regional brewers in the country, operating over 1, 800 licensed premises. The company was taken over by Courage in 1970 who extended distribution of the brewery's products into the South of England. Courage was acquired by Scottish & Newcastle in 1995, and the operations were purchased by Heineken in 2008. John Smith's Extra Smooth and Original are produced at the Tadcaster brewery, as well as a range of Heineken products including Amstel and Kronenbourg 1664. With a 38 million litre capacity, the brewery is one of the largest in the country. John Smith's became well known for a series of highly successful "No Nonsense"-themed television advertising campaigns, featuring the dour Yorkshireman character "Arkwright" during the 1970s and 1980s The brewery brews 3.8 million hectolitres annually (1.3 million of which is John Smith's beer), and employed around 300 people in 2008. It has two keg lines, two bottle lines and one canning line. It currently brews and packages the ale brands John Smith's Original, John Smith's Extra Smooth and Newcastle Brown Ale, and the lager brands Foster's, Kronenbourg 1664 (Kronenbourg is a Carlsberg-owned brand brewed under license by Heineken in the UK), Amstel and Tiger