Bottled Lager: Bottling success

It can be tempting to look upon bottled lager as the poor relation of draught, languishing in anonymous fridges behind the shiny pumps on the bar top. Get it right, however, and the back-bar can be an excellent complement to draught lager, say leaders in the category.We gathered some of their views on stocking policy. And they all agreed: get bottled lager right and it can match the crisp, low temperatures which have attracted punters to draught of late, and can provide a range to excite drinkers in the way that its perceived richer relation cannot.

Shepherd Neame​

Nigel Bunting, retail director​

"A lot of our pubs want the key bottled brands," says Bunting. "Beck's and Corona sell well, as does Budvar." He believes - at least for traditional or food-led pubs such as those in Sheps' estate - that three or four bottled brands is the optimum number to stock, and that the emphasis should be on quality, rather than quantity.

"I prefer to do fewer brands and merchandise them well, rather than having masses and masses which the customer won't be able to see," he says.

"There is more and more demand for colder products, and with that comes limited fridge capacity anyway. There's only one way of achieving cold in bottles and that's having good, well-maintained fridges.

"It all comes back to presentation. The beer should be properly chilled and presented."

In Shep's estate, therefore, licensees are encouraged to pour from a correctly chilled bottle into a glass at the bar.

Scottish & Newcastle​

Shaun Heyes, S&N UK head of category marketing​

Bottled lager's temperature has been overlooked of late in favour of innovation in cold draught lager - a trend that needs to be addressed, in Heyes' opinion.

The most important element in this respect, he says, is making sure fridges are working correctly. "Often fridges are underperforming without anyone noticing," he says. "From the point of view of consistency, packaged beer should always be served at the same temperature as draught," generally 3-5°C.

Heyes also stresses presentation when it comes to bottles.

"The key point is to ensure that core products are visible, either in the back-bar chiller cabinet or in appropriately sited displays," he says.Merchandising and making certain products more visible are is even more crucial if pubs are to achieve the evolving range of niche beers pointed to elsewhere in this feature. Heyes recommends using PoS material to do this.

Miller Brands​

Nick Miller, sales director​

For Miller Brands, the bottled format represents a way to supplement draught sales, as research recently completed by the drinks company proves.

Between July and January, Miller Brands monitored 10 outlets in a "leading managed on-trade group" that had had Peroni installed on draught in addition to selling bottles of the lager. It found that bottled sales roughly trebled as a result of the installation. This persuaded Nick that "consumers will flip between bottled and draught, depending on the occasion", making it important to stock a range of both. He advises several ways to promote bottled lager in outlet:

• Innovation in glassware, such as branded glasses or keeping glasses frosted in a freezer
• Promoting the beers' provenance. This could be done via blackboards
• Matching with food

The British Beer & Pub Association's new voluntary code of conduct, stating requirements for bottle labels, will also help the category and should be supported by retailers, he adds.

InBev​

Steve Kitching, InBev UK managing director, commercial and field operations​

According to Kitching, it is the responsibility of the licensee to judge the relative demand for bottled and draught lager in their pub. He says: "It very much depends on the profile of consumer drinking there and whether they have a preference for bottled or draught beer. The sort of occasion the outlet caters for also has an impact.

For example, bottled beer may be more popular in 'big night out' venues with a high turnover and young consumer profile."

Aside from this, decisions over how many bottled lager brands to stock may be determined by practical issues: "A small pub may not be able to stock more than a limited number of draught beers, or may not have the throughput to justify an extensive range, so the retailer may have to put more focus on bottled beers to enable them to stock a wider range," he says.

Global Brands​

John Harley, beer brands director​

Harley, who also spent five years as chief executive of Budvar UK, sees bottles as the perfect way for pubs to offer a constantly evolving range of niche beers. The format gives licensees far more "flexibility" than draught, where you are "often locked into having mainstream brands for months, if not years", he says.

Global's lager range includes genuine imports Tsingtao, from China; Carib, from Trinidad; Salitos, from Mexico, and Viru, from Estonia. All are available in the UK exclusively in bottled format.

Harley says: "With bottles, you can react quicker to what your customers want, and also have a far greater range. That's what excites consumers, and what is really driving imported beers."

He believes it is simple to chill bottled beers adequately with modern fridges.

"The reason people have not made such a big deal about temperature in bottles as in draught is it's usually very good," he says. "Gone are the days of open-shelf coolers."

Carlsberg ​

David Scott, head of on-trade customer marketing​

"The key thing is making sure the products stocked are in the biggest growth sectors - for example, Mexican lager, and the innovation S&N has introduced with Fosters Twist and we have with Carlsberg Edge," says Scott. But he also advises a canny mixture of these newbies and the market leaders, Budweiser and Beck's.

Like Shepherd Neame's Nigel Bunting, he also opts for four bottled lagers as the optimum number to stock. This number is partly determined by the current growth of cider and wine, which he says pubs would do well to allocate more fridge space to.

And are there certain pubs which should prioritise a bottled offering?

"Probably those on the high street," Scott says, "where speed of service is important. Where sport pubs, for example, have success is often with bottles when people want to get a drink quickly and get back to their seat."