Daniel Thwaites will be celebrating its bicentenary in two years, by which time awareness of its cask ales should be spreading out from its northwest of England heartland.
Brian Jenkins, the Blackburn-based company's sales and marketing director, says Thwaites believes it can grow its national cask-ale volume by around 25% over the next five years. And with the company already having a very strong cask-ale business within the northern trading area, he says: 'We see this growth coming predominantly from the national market place. It will be spearheaded, he says, by Thwaites' Lancaster Bomber, which saw 32% growth last year.
Jenkins believes the big national players' concentration on lager is harming the cask-ale category in the immediate short term, 'but this has to be an opportunity for major regional players like Thwaites, he says. 'If you look at real ale as a product, its biggest selling point is its purity. Couple this with the fact that you cannot replicate that fantastic feeling of a pint of cask ale in the home and you have a proposition that should be very appealing.
Jenkins believes both brand owners and retailers understand these unique selling points. 'But it would be fair to say that neither has maximised the potential of cask ale within the UK drinks category, he adds. Thwaites is doing its own bit by increasing the level of, and focus on, training for all its licensees and staff at its 400-plus outlets, 'to ensure we achieve perfection and then consistency in glass.
While the potential market for cask ale is any adult drinker who visits a bar, Jenkins says: 'Realistically, we know that is not going to be the case. Instead, I believe that the future drinkers will come from people who we can engage and who we can talk to about beer per se. It is, therefore, about building a relationship, educating and ensuring that we deliver, from cask to cellar to branded glass. He is not too optimistic about trying to charge more for a quality product, however.
'This is running before we have even started to walk. Any premium-price position has to be justified in the eyes of your consumer and until we begin to educate our drinkers about the attributes and quality of cask ale versus other drink categories then I think we could be on a sticky wicket.
Overall, Jenkins says his 'glass is half full on the future of the cask-ale market. 'I think it is inevitable that as the on-trade market is so fragmented and that we, as an industry, have yet to communicate core messages to the consumer, ale will continue to decline at the expense of lager, albeit at a slower rate than in the past 10 years. However, with the rise of bars and pubs selling imported beers from all the beer categories, cask ale will continue to sit well alongside these brands in terms of authenticity and provenance.