When bottled beer turns to draught

When you are analysing a declining market you tend to try and cling to any piece of good news you can find. Why wouldn't you when the British Beer & Pub Association is releasing figures showing a 16 per cent year-on-year decline in sales of beer in the year up to April 2008?

In draught lager the good news appears to come in the form of some growth in sales of super-premium world beers.

To be honest this isn't something on which we can pin our hopes for the revival of the lager market. The volumes are just not big enough. But what the likes of Peroni and Pilsner Urquell are doing is driving value in the sector. "Peroni is now the highest-priced draught beer per litre in bars and pubs," says Nick Miller, sales director at Miller Brands.

"We have been very careful where we have 'sited' the brand so why have we seen such a wave of excitement around these beers?"

Zoe Smith, on-trade marketing manager at Cobra, believes it is because customers are getting tired of commodity brands.

Traditionally, they have been happy to go into the bottled category to find new and interesting products. Now they're demanding this kind of differentiation in draught.

"World beers have enjoyed excellent growth in pubs as consumers have tired of finding the same four or five brands in every pub," she says. "However, to really capitalise on this trend, it is hugely important to have a draught as well as a bottled offering."

Serious investment

Cobra is a brand that is certainly going to be throwing serious investment at the draught category towards the end of this year and into 2009. It sees it as crucial to its strategic move into the pub market.

So why do the owners of successful bottled beer brands want to move into draught? Sure, there are the obvious potential margin and profit benefits, but surely they are in danger of damaging the successful proposition they have built up in bottled. Miller admits it's a difficult balancing act. But he says it is vital to get the brand into an outlet in both bottle and draught - to cater for all consumer occasions.

"What you tend to find is that as the night progresses consumers tend to move from draught to bottles - the consumer moderates his consumption through the evening," he says. "If you have dual stocking - of both bottled and draught - then you have the opportunity to really merchanidise your brand brilliantly in that outlet. That's our aim."

Iconic feel

This strategy has led to serious success for the Italian lager brand. It is enjoying 40 per cent year-on-year growth in the on-trade, with draught now in 2,000 outlets and bottles continuing to grow sales by 25 per cent a year.

"We moved into draught - and not to the detriment of our bottled stockists either - and we are seeing growth in both areas," says Miller.

"We wanted to ensure that we retained the iconic feel of Peroni by retaining our bottled listings."

It is a strategy that any beer-brand owner having success in the bottled format will follow, as Zoe Smith confirms. "It is very important when you consider that bottled lager is in long-term decline in the on-trade - a trend unlikely to be reversed in the near future," she says. "With one or two notable exceptions, successful bottled beer brands should certainly be looking at a draught offering to enjoy sustained success in the on-trade."