Cider: Pear essentials

It was about two years ago that I was first made aware of Kopparberg pear cider. It was to be the next big thing, according to the pub company buyer I spoke to. It puzzled me at first. After all, perry was a well-known form of cider but one that sold pretty poorly in pubs.

This was different I was told. Perry is made from perry pears. This was simply a pear version of cider - sweeter and much more attractive to consumers.

Two years on, he was proved right. But from those beginnings, pear cider has begun to expand impressively with almost all major brand owners getting behind the category (with the exception of Magners owner C&C).

But apparently the best is yet to come.

Geoff Brown, product and marketing manager for beer, cider and soft drinks at Matthew Clark, says: "This year would have been big for pear cider if we had had the weather.

"Pear cider remains the next big product to be discovered in the long drinks category, and it will be the leverage that the overall cider category needs.

"I predict 20 per cent year-on-year growth for cider, providing there is a good summer next year."

But what pear cider should you go for? Here we look at the line up of pear ciders vying for your attention.

Do you go with the big bucks and plump for Bulmers Pear? Do you go for flashy packaging and rebrandings? Then go for +46. Local tradition with a foreign twist? Then Kopparberg is your brand.

Here is a line-up of some of the best pear ciders on the market.

Gaymers Pear​

Launched: March 2008 (draught)​

4.5% ABV​

Gaymers pear was the first premium-mainstream pear cider brand available on draught and was launched with a specially designed, super-chilled, dual branded font for all pubs and bars.

Through Gaymers' £4m integrated music marketing campaign this summer, Gaymers pear has been available at some of the UK's biggest music festivals, such as Reading and Leeds, which has helped it to make its mark with key consumers through high visibility and trial.

The results have been impressive, with the trial demonstrating that Gaymers Pear pushes incremental growth in overall cider sales - results of the activity showed that 44 per cent of people buying Gaymers pear cider have never bought any other premium mainstream cider - bringing in new consumers to the category

+46​

Launched: April 2008​

4.5% ABV​

In a bid to challenge a lack of differentiation in the category, Halewood International launched +46 in the UK in partnership with Swedish company Herrljunga Cider AB. With £500,000 invested in the UK launch to date, +46 is expected to experience strong growth in 2009 as licensees who are seeking to offer their customers product differentiation in a competitive marketplace are attracted by its distinctive contemporary design, Swedish heritage and taste profile.

Halewood International's marketing controller, Richard Clark, says: "We are seeking to challenge the cider category for 2009 by offering a great-tasting imported Swedish cider which has ground-breaking contemporary packaging".

Bulmers Pear​

Launched: November 2007​

4.5% ABV​

Graeme McKenzie, Bulmers marketing manager, says:"We are just launching on draught and the results have been quite phenomenal. What we have actually done in the trial is grown total cider sales across the board. That is the impact of Bulmers Pear. So there is a fantastic benefit for the licensee.

"Cider is on a real buzz at the moment and the drinker is looking for news all the time. And they are looking for flavour choice and pear gives it a slightly more female focus.

"The feedback we have had from consumers is that it is a very natural-tasting liquid - the most natural out there."

St Helier Pear Cider​

Launched: Autumn 2006 ​

5% ABV​

A spokesman for St Helier says: "We (Intercontinental Brands [ICB]) were early into the market, have a strong identity and a premium offering. It is an interesting drink, with the heritage of beer, the versatility and subtleties of wine, sophisticated enough to offer at parties."

"It is the right product at the right place at the right time, which is what ICB does best.

"We are quick to recognise a niche, happening trend and react to it with an appropriate offering.

"Plus consumers really like the product. Against a plethora of new cider brands, and pear ciders in particular, our experience is that drinkers love the taste of St Helier, which we believe has the fullest and most distinctive pear character.

"St Helier is now widely recognised by consumers and is known for its individual flavour. Added to this is its impressive marketing support (particularly its sponsorship of the Sunday morning Championship football highlights package on ITV, which takes it to 500,000 people a week), which means that this awareness will be continuously reinforced."

Brothers Pear​

First launched: mid-1995 at Glastonbury festival​

Launched into on-trade: 2006​

Festival edition: 7% ABV​

Trade edition: 4.7% ABV​

A spokesman for the brand says: "A key element in the success of our pear cider range is that it has avoided branding based on narrow propositions aimed at specific target groups.

"Its roots stem from the Glastonbury festival in the mid-1990s. It was initially produced as a one-off by the Showering brothers, who then repeated the exercise before finally launching the brand on a professional footing. Brothers invests heavily in sponsorship of outdoor music festivals, and this communication is seen by a music festival-going audience who associate with the brand accordingly.

"However, the range appeals to completely different demographics who perceive the brand as a premium long drink, and it therefore sells well in the pub sector to both men and women. Sales have increased by 238 per cent this year, and Brothers is currently the fastest-growing cider brand."

Brothers also claims the highest number of visitors to a cider manufacturer's website, plus thousands of hits per day on its Facebook page.

Thatchers​

Launched: 2007 in bottle (April 2008 on draught)​

4.5% ABV​

A spokesman for Thatchers says: "Thatchers Pear Cider was first introduced at the beginning of 2007 in a 500ml bottle, followed this year with a version on draught.

"Crafted from home-grown fruit, Thatchers Pear Cider is fresh and light, and continues to gain significant listings in the on-trade.

"Gained from experience passed down over the generations,this product reinforces our reputation for producing fine English ciders with character."

Kopparberg​

Launched: October 2006​

4.5% ABV​

Davin Nugent, managing director of Cider of Sweden, says: "This is our third year of national distribution - when we started it was just Brothers on the market. We now have all these other brands, with Bulmers really taking us on in the on-trade.

"However, its pear cider is quite dry - as are Thatchers, Westons and St Helier. We are not taking their customers - we are really taking from wine and spirit drinkers.

"We have done our own thing and not tried to take on Magners and Bulmers apple. We have simply grown share in a sustainable way.

"And this is mainly because of the taste. People want a greater range of tastes and an improvement on the world of alcopops.

"Pear has that fantastic taste but within that there are different tastes and, as a result, different groupings of drinkers.

"So there are Bulmers Pear drinkers and there

are Kopparberg Pear drinkers - and they will rarely cross over."