The future is pear

Ah, the humble pear. For so long the less-talented, less-feted partner to the apple; the Art Garfunkel to Paul Simon, the Ernie Wise to Eric Morecambe.

But times are changing. Pear is popular. The eagle-eyed among you will have noticed Coca-Cola Enterprises' decision to launch a pear extension of Appletiser, called, aptly enough, Peartiser. And now pear cider is starting to enjoy impressive growth too.

Licensee research undertaken by Scottish & Newcastle (S&N) this year showed that 56 per cent of the trade anticipate growth in the pear cider market in the next 12 months.

Pear's journey to the position of "the next big thing" in pub drinks has been long and winding. Mainly because of a little thing called perry.

The perry problem…

For a long time you wouldn't find anything called pear cider in a pub or on the shelves of an off-licence, there was simply perry. And there were some big perry brands - not least the classic Babycham - and still are, in the form of Lambrini. Now purists argue that perry and pear cider are two completely different things - that in the strictest sense perry can only be made with perry pears. But the standard view from the drinks industry is that any drink made with fermented pears can be called perry or pear cider.

But pedantic arguments aside, pear cider suffered from the same image problems as apple cider in the 1980s and 1990s.

However, as the cider revolution has taken place, brand owners have looked to add the pear taste to the equation. And from there we have seen an explosion - with new brands such as St Helier and Maguire's, the expansion of Glastonbury festival favourite Brothers and the entrance of Swedish ciders Kopparberg and Herrljunga.

And now we have the news that S&N is to launch a pear version of its hugely successful Bulmers Original brand.The next big thing - at a price

So pear is the new big thing in cider. But there are a few dark clouds on the horizon - the number one of these being the increase in pear juice prices from around the world.

Every natural food and drink producer is suffering in the current climate of poor crops and increasing prices. But the cost of pear juice is set to rise by three times next year - a cost implication that is going to seriously impinge on the many new brand owners in the market.

You sense that there could well be a big churn of brands in the next year to 18 months. So as a leading brand owner comments later in the report, anyone entering this category to make a quick buck, may find themselves exiting it just as quickly.