launched. The five points of the star represent the five founding breweries of Newcastle. After the merger of Scottish Brewers with Newcastle Breweries in 1960, Newcastle Brown Ale became a flagship brand of Scottish & Newcastle alongside McEwan's Export and Younger's Tartan Special. By 1997, Scottish and Newcastle claimed that it was the most widely distributed alcoholic product in both pubs and off licences in the country. Move to Federation Brewery, Gateshead Despite investing £16.6 million in a new bottling plant at the Tyne Brewery in 1999, Scottish and Newcastle announced its closure on 22 April 2004, in order to consolidate the brewing of beer and ale in the Federation Brewery site in Dunston, Gateshead, which was to pass to them with their £7.2m purchase of the Federation Brewery. The purchase and consolidation at Dunston created the new brewing company, Newcastle Federation Breweries. The last production run of Brown Ale in Newcastle came off the Tyne Brewery line in May 2005. Pre-production trial brews were conducted at Dunston to ensure no change occurred in its taste after the move. The Tyne Brewery site was bought by a consortium of Newcastle University, Newcastle City Council, and the regional development agency One NorthEast, as part of the wider Newcastle Science City project. Demolition of the former brewery began on 8 March 2007. The triggering of the controlled demolition of the former Barrack Road bottling plant opposite St James' Park was ceremonially performed by Sir Bobby Robson on 22 June 2008. Move to John Smith's Brewery, Tadcaster Bottling of Newcastle Brown Ale moved to the John Smith's Brewery in Tadcaster, North Yorkshire, in 2007. Heineken bought Scottish and Newcastle in a joint deal with Carlsberg in 2008. In 2010, Scottish and Newcastle closed the Dunston brewery, moving production of Brown Ale to the John Smiths Brewery in Tadcaster. The company cited the general fall in the market for beer, over-capacity in its plants in general, and the fact that the Dunston site was operating at just 60% capacity—despite the fact that sales of Newcastle Brown Ale had never been higher—as reasons for the closure. In 2015, the caramel colouring, which has been used since the beer was launched, was removed for health reasons. Instead, roasted malt was used to darken the beer. Move to Zoeterwoude Brewery, the Netherlands In 2017, Heineken moved some production from the John Smith's Brewery, Tadcaster, to the Zoeterwoude