Daringly different

Adventurous drinkers are driving growth in the speciality beer market no wonder the big brewers are scrambling to get in on the act. Jo de Mille reports on one of the most dynamic sectors of the beer industry

Variety is the spice of life, they say, and nothing could ring truer for the UK beer market. Within premium lager which includes beers such as Beck's, Grolsch, Stella Artois and Kronenbourg sales have fallen 5% in the on-trade in the last year, a figure that suggests consumers are on the look-out for something a bit different (AC Nielsen data). As Andrew Jack, brand manager for premium lagers for Scottish Courage, argues: 'Consumers look for uniqueness. They are continually on the look-out for something other people aren't doing a point of difference.

Nigel McNally is sales and marketing director of Charles Wells, which produces Kirin Ichiban a rice beer made from the 'first runnings of the brewing process. McNally argues: 'Taste is a key driver of brand choice in the premium lager market, and through consumer research, we found that the four main premium lagers all contain very similar elements of taste. Many consumers find them too bitter and want a rounder taste something many of the speciality beers provide, with their unique flavours.

And as certain drinkers often experimental young professionals who have a bit of cash to spare try speciality beers such as wheat, fruit, abbey and dark beers while on holiday, they will be looking out for them back home. This increasingly discerning palate is also apparent in other categories such as confectionery, where your bog-standard Cadbury is no longer enough for many consumers, who have discovered niche chocolate brands such as Green & Black's.

Hannah Bass, manager of the Ebury, in Victoria, London, says: 'Consumers have high expectations of what they're going to get in a pub these days. Our beer menu has lagged behind our food offering for quite a while, but now there is the same level of interest there. Quality is what matters to our customers, they don't mind so much about the price.

Market tipped to rise five-fold

And while figures for the speciality beer market are few and far between, Interbrew UK estimates that the speciality beer market will increase five-fold to 250,000 barrels annually by 2012.

The big boys of the UK brewers, therefore, see this year's challenge to make the speciality beer market more accessible to mainstream drinkers in the on-trade by continuing to introduce products pitched somewhere between the niche end of the market and mainstream lagers, tempting some of their core market to try them.

Interbrew has just launched Artois Bock to the UK market an amber-coloured 6.2% abv lager positioned halfway between speciality and mainstream brands. The beer, which was last available in the late 1950s throughout Belgium, is being trialled in four London pubs, before a gradual roll-out of the product between August and October in 750 UK outlets. Richard Ingram, brand manager, new products team, says: 'The idea behind the launch was to provide an entry point for mainstream drinkers into the speciality beer market. It's also a step towards changing and growing the category, to give people the authority to try them.

However, with these brands being all about 'discovery, major marketing campaigns would not work since they're likely to turn off the very people the beers are trying to attract these drinkers prefer to discover the beers themselves rather than being targeted by marketing. Ingram believes it will, therefore, take time for people to travel down that route towards the more niche products. While Hoegaarden is now the most widely distributed speciality beer (see table below), and Leffe Blond the second-most distributed brand, this has by no means happened overnight; Hoegaarden was launched to the UK market over a decade ago, and Leffe six years ago.

'There are no products lacking in the market as a whole, says Julie O'Neill, marketing manager for Interbrew UK's speciality beer brands Hoegaarden, Leffe and Belle-Vue. 'But what we are lacking is education real knowledge about the products: their ingredients, heritage and flavours, which is what makes the products unique.

Interbrew UK's aim is to 'take the consumer on a journey, to teach them about what they're drinking and where it's from. So, for instance, the Leffe logo features the tower from the abbey of the Belgian monastery on the Leffe River, where the beer's brewed. Licensees are also given cards to display in the bar area, explaining more about the product.

The company also runs masterclasses in conjunction with the Morning Advertiser to teach licensees about speciality beers, with tutored tastings on 10 of their beers and information on their heritage and origin.

Robert Newland, who is the UK agent of Erdinger Weissbrau which produces Erdinger Weissbier (5.3% abv), a wheat beer brewed in Erding, a village to the north-east of Munich agrees that education is essential: 'I always explain the complete history of the beer to company managers and licensees before they take [it] on. I provide licensees with laminated fact sheets, which they can keep behind the bar for any consumers who want to know more about the beer.

And to check they're passing on the information properly, Newland mystery shops his customers to ask them some 'impertinent questions, a possibility they are warned about.

Seducing the 'beer explorers'

Suppliers also need to be selective in their approach to distribution, in order to offer the right range to the right consumers in the right outlets a blanket approach most definitely will not work. Otherwise, they run the risk of making the beers too available, which, ironically, could put off the very customers they are trying to attract.

Brand manager for Scottish Courage's premium lagers Andrew Jack explains: 'The trendsetters and beer explorers who drink the more specialist beers like to be seen as trying the new drinks. Making the beers more readily available is a good thing, however, once a beer's more available, those trendsetters won't readily drink it. He cites ScotCo's Kronenbourg Blanc (5% abv) as an example of a speciality beer that is approaching mainstream status, as the fastest growing on-trade speciality beer (AC Nielsen March 2005). Although its ubiquity might turn off drinkers 'in the know, the product is obviously fulfilling the major players' aim to attract a reasonable level of attention from mainstream drinkers.

As Mitchells & Butlers' purchasing manager David Oswald points out: 'Beers such as Kronenbourg Blanc do appeal to the mid-ground market, in that the brand name gives reassurance to people who need some sort of cue to enter the speciality beer market. The same goes for Artois Bock.

'However, provenance is very important to many people and I don't think those consumers will be so convinced about their heritage while Kronenbourg Blanc is produced in France, it's not available there. Similarly, Bock is available in Leuven where it's produced, but only in a few select outlets. Other beers that he believes to be authentic products such as Hoegaarden, he says, have gained mainstream status through 'relentless work and branded glassware.

Oswald adds: 'I think it's important that the major players don't become too mainstream and undermine their position, dragging their speciality brands into a value offering.

ScotCo's Jack acknowledges, however, that there are some products the more niche beers which will never make it to the mainstream segment. For example, ScotCo's Baltika (5.4% abv), which is imported from St Petersburg, is a very specialist product, and unless consumers are au fait with the Greek alphabet, they're unlikely to be able to read its Cyrillic font. But as Jack reasons: 'We wouldn't want to change the font, as the product would lose its authenticity and sense of premium, something that is an intrinsic part of a speciality beer.

Heritage issues aside, with the major players making niche beers available to a wider audience, do the smaller player