Polish persuasion

Imported Polish beers are one of the fastest-growing sectors in the industry. Adrian Tierney-Jones reports on their rapidly-rising popularity

We've had Polish plumbers and painters and now it's the turn of the pint as premium lager sales take a battering from the tidal wave of Polish beer brands. There can't be many licensees left who haven't been asked for a Tyskie or Okocim, many of them wondering what their customers were talking about.

Two hundred years ago English brewers exported strong dark porters to Russian-occupied Poland. Now, the favour has been returned and British pubs and bars are looking east for the latest beer sensation.

Earlier in May, global giant SABMiller announced that sales of one of its Polish brands - the hoppy, bittersweet Tyskie - had risen by 400% in the six months to March 2007, compared with the same period in the

previous year.

Not content with one Polish beer, it also owns the smooth, malt-driven Lech, which is an equally strong seller. Taken together, these two beers account for 17.6 million pints sold in the UK and Ireland, which itself has a sizeable Polish community.

Despite the precious heritage of Baltic porters, these beers are gold-coloured lager styles that look to Germany for their inspiration; they also have more of a hop character than British-brewed premium lagers.

As for dark beers, the market for them has collapsed in their Baltic homeland, with young drinkers turning away from beers usually associated with their elders; a similar thing happened to mild over here.

Traditional brewing values

"Tyskie is the leading beer brand in Poland and the Poles' loyalty to it is leading to rising sales outside the country," says SABMiller Europe managing director Alan Clark. "The Polish migrants who have moved to London have done so with an estimated disposable income of £4bn a year. Government figures show that 82% are aged between 18 and 34, underlining the attractiveness of the Polish pound."

Such has been the success of Tyskie that its lorries in Poland now carry the strapline "Delivery to London. Daily" as a way of trumpeting its export status.

Other robust players in the market are Zywiec and Okocim, while specialist beer wholesaler Pierhead has plumped for two brands from Brok: the bittersweet, malt-edged Sambor and a robust pale bock style called Strong.

Given the popularity of vodka in Poland, the beers that find their way over here are stronger than your average pint of Stella Artois, itself no alcoholic shrinking violet.

This is a beer phenomenon by anyone's standards and good news for those bringing the beer into the country. "Brok has enjoyed great success in Poland and is considered one of Eastern Europe's finest beer brands," says Pierhead's director of imported beers Michael Cook. "These full-bodied lagers have been brewed since 1874 and retain their Baltic brewing heritage by using exclusively

local ingredients and traditional brewing techniques.

"The market for Polish beers is showing impressive growth and premium brands with the right support have a very good chance of success."

Diversity of choice

JD Wetherspoon was one of the first to recognise the demand as Britain played host to thousands of Poles who arrived here when their country joined the European Union. In 2005 the company began a big push to add a selection of world beers to its pubs.

At the time bottles of Zywiec, a pale bittersweet Pilsener-style lager, started to appeal to drinkers, initially from Poland — after all, living in a foreign country and being able to drink your favourite beer is a common source of comfort for all ex-pats.

It wasn't long, though, before local drinkers started to practice their Polish and ask for a beer from the east.

According to the pub chain's spokesman,

Eddie Gershon: "Wetherspoon always wants a diverse range of beers. There's a large Polish community in England, and there are pockets of Poles across the country.

"These beers are also not difficult to import, but the main things are taste as well as saleability, and they meet those challenges."

The Polish community might have driven the original demand, but home-grown pub-goers soon joined the fray.

According to Wetherspoon marketing

manager Ashley Halliday, the majority are adventurous lager drinkers looking for something different to their usual gassy lager.

He says: "People enjoy the flavour, and they are easier to drink, not being as carbonated as other big-name lagers. Part of the success also comes from people going to places such as Prague, where they not only see different lagers but things such as wheat beers. It makes drinkers more open-minded."

Another pub company going down the Polish route is Laurel, with bottled Tyskie and Zywiec featuring at all their 280 licensed outlets. "We brought in Zywiec last autumn," says managing director for pubs and bars Toby Smith, "then Tyskie was added in March."

The two beers are part of the company's beers of the world promotion, which also includes the likes of Russia's Baltika (which is about to be brewed under licence in the UK, thus negating its imported foreign beer

status).

Smith adds: "Drinkers have become more adventurous and a couple of things have created demand. One is the influx of Poles into the UK, especially in West London, where a lot of them congregate.

"Then there are the budget airlines flying to places like Krakow and Warsaw, which has meant people trying different beers."

So far these beers have all been available in bottle, but Carlsberg UK has gone further and announced plans to supply Okocim on draught.

For the last two years the beer has had limited distribution mainly in the off-trade within the M25, but Carlsberg UK, which has full control of the supply of Okocim in the UK, is now rolling it out nationally for supply to both the on and off-trades.

The British drinker can be a naturally conservative creature, but the success of Polish beer (which follows on the heels of the speciality beer success) is a sign of change and something canny licensees can capitalise on.

So where should the Slavophile licensee turn next? As the likes of Tyskie and Lech fly over the bar, perhaps it will be the turn of Poland's neighbour Lithuania.

After all, Švyturys' Dortmunder-style lager Ekstra is on sale in Wetherspoon and a good beer it is too. As Smith says: "We are always looking to match customers' demands, so no country is out."

Na zdrowie! as they say in Warsaw.