 Whitbread transformed the brand from regional to national , expanding production from 200 @,@ 000 to 850 @,@ 000 barrels a year between 1989 and 1995 . By 1993 the cask version was outsold only by Tetley and John Smith 's , and the majority of sales were outside of the North West . By 1994 it was the fourth @-@ highest selling bitter brand in the country . The canned variant was distributed nationwide from 1990 and was the highest @-@ selling canned bitter in the UK from 1992 until 2000 . The beer was officially exported overseas from 1993 , initially to Canada . The rise in sales of the beer coincided with the elevation of Manchester from " city of dark , beaten mills to the cultural magnet of Madchester " . Manchester and the North of England were now fashionable in the public consciousness and rejuvenated from industrial slump . Whitbread chief executive Peter Jarvis commented in 1995 that : 
