I learned a lot from that punch-up in Romford

HANGING around street corners in the early hours watching drunken youths brawling is a little off the beaten track for a company chief. Indeed, the UK head of Coors, one of the country's biggest brewers and maker of Carling, is usually to be found in sober City boardrooms or overseeing production at his three breweries.

But at 2.30am recently, Peter Kendall, 58, was 'on the beat' watching police break up fights between young drunks.

'I took up the Government's invite to see the binge drinking culture close up,' he says dryly in a soft American accent that betrays nothing of his origins in Croydon, Surrey. 'And I got Romford in Essex - the short straw.'

America's Coors, the seventh-biggest brewer in the world, is considering a merger with Molson of Canada. If it happens, Kendall, who went to university in the US and stayed on, is in line for a bonus said to be about £1.7m, though he is not commenting.

In Britain, Coors is best known for paying £1.2bn for the beer brands that regulators ordered rival Interbrew to offload. These include Carling, the biggest lager brand in the UK. Sales are 5.5m barrels a year and growing by at least ten% a year.

Since Kendall took charge, the focus has been strictly on the lager brands, which include Grolsch and Coors Fine Light.

He says: 'I wanted to move away from selling other people's beers and focus on our own.'

Kendall, who was recruited by W. Leo Kiely III, his old boss from his days at PepsiCo, takes a fairly hands-off approach.

'Once I've agreed strategy and targets with my people, it's up to them to make it happen,' he says.

Kendall, who has an American wife, Sara, and three grown-up sons, splits his time between London, Manhattan and the Staffordshire brewing town of Burton upon Trent.

He is well-placed to appreciate the problem of binge drinking. While as boss of Coors he wants to sell more beer, he is also chairman of the Portman Group, the industry lobby that promotes responsible drinking.

Drinks and pub companies know that selling cheap alcohol to young people who will later be seen brawling or throwing up does not foster a good image.

'There is no question that it is an issue,' says Kendall. 'While the majority of people drink responsibly, a growing minority doesn't. Portman's role is to galvanise the industry into self-regulation because if it is a total free-for-all, the Government will come in and regulate for us - and the industry will be a lot worse off.'

So Coors labels show the number of alcohol units as well as sensible drinking messages, though Kendall worries that they could 'become wallpaper, like with cigarette packets'.

He adds: 'The idea that people are drinking more alcohol than before is wrong. But younger people go out much more and they like to get legless. In my day, the idea of going out just to get drunk was a bit naff.'

Hence the trip to Romford, where, Kendall says, he learned a few things. 'There are issues out there, no question,' he says.

'There are promotions such as all you can drink for £10, or girls drink free between six and eight pm. A lot of younger people were able to buy stuff in off-licences. And there was a definite change from 11pm, when it was jolly, to 2.30am, when it was getting a bit menacing.'

He is not convinced that flexible drinking hours is the solution - 'They relieve some of the symptoms, but I'm not sure they change irresponsible behaviour.'

Kendall readily admits that beer has an image problem. 'Wine is seen as being more unisex, more stylish,' he points out. 'Beer, on the other hand, is a working-class guy with a belly. There's a lot about the image of beer that we have to change and it won't happen overnight, but it has improved.'

Kendall reckons that only half the pubs that sell his beer serve what he would call a perfect pint.

'It's about having the beer served in the correct way at the correct temperature with the correctly branded glass,' he says. 'All these things do so much to raise the image of beer.'

Meanwhile, he will continue to promote Coors brands for all he is worth, especially Carling.

He says: 'There are four things that young men like - women, football, music and lager.'

And his favourite drinks? 'Grolsch. But I do like Carling - and Coors Fine Light is very refreshing,' he says loyally, and entirely convincingly.