INDEPENDENT Blandford-based brewer Hall & Woodhouse has announced a partial sale to Marston's.

Making an exit from direct-delivered free trade beer it has sold this side of the business together with its customer base to Marston's Beer Company - reputedly for a seven-figure sum.

The free trade side of Hall & Woodhouse allowed the business to sell its beers to pubs that were not tied in with other brewers.

This sale allows the brewer to concentrate on its tenanted and managed houses.

Various brewers operating free trade accounts have experienced toughening conditions and it makes sense for Hall & Woodhouse to offload this side of the business in favour of more profitable areas.

However, Dorset has seen a worrying trend of established local breweries being swallowed up by one brewing giant - Marstons.

Until 2006 the brewer previously known as Wolverhampton & Dudley was one of the oldest names in brewing - with nearly a 120-year pedigree.

Its appetite for Dorset breweries started when it purchased Dorchester-based pub chain Eldridge Pope in January last year for £155 million.

Not six months later it guzzled Ringwood Brewery for £19 million.

With its 200-year-old history, Hall & Woodhouse is more established than Marston's and is now turning its attention to refurbishing its pubs, such as The Crown at Blandford and The Old Granary at Wareham.

Recently, spreading its wings, it has purchased the old Bonhams site in Bath for £3 million, with a view to developing a "super pub". Head of brands David French said: "The direct free trade market has become increasingly competitive.

"Regional brewers like us have become squeezed between large international brewing companies with economies to offer ever-increasing discounts, and micro brewers using their lower cost of beer duty to also sell at low prices.

"Despite our best efforts to increase the free trade business, the decline of the market and the level of profitability meant that we were unable to make this a viable long-term business.

"This sale will enable us to focus investment on the development of our new brewery and pub estate."

As a result of the handover, the Hall & Woodhouse free trade sales and support teams have transferred to Marston's under Transfer of Undertakings Protection of Employment legislation.

This process was completed on February 1.