Britain's brewing industry is utterly different from those of most other nations. For a start, British brewers are allowed to own pubs and bars, a type of vertical integration which does not exist in most markets and which in some (the US, for example) is strictly illegal.
British brewers also own very few indigenous beer brands of any real international strength. One rare exception is Newcastle Brown but even this, as the then chairman Sir Alick Rankin remarked, is more by accident than design while brands such as Heineken, Carlsberg, Foster's and Guinness are essentially 'foreigners' that now thrive in Britain's idiosyncratic beer market.
It was, of course, being able to own pubs which led in turn to the industry's lack of brands. Who needs strong brands when you control the outlets?
No brand story
From the 1960s to the 1980s our brewing industry purported to be in a brand development phase. Beers such as Watney's Red Barrel, Courage Director's and Boddington's were advertised heavily but the products were often indifferent, the brand story had little 'texture' and as soon as advertising support was withdrawn consumer interest faded. By the late 1980s, the only true power brands left in the UK beer market were the 'foreigners' plus a few regional brands with a loyal local following.
It was around this time that I began to take an interest in brewing beer, not merely drinking it. I had founded Interbrand in 1974 and this had grown to become an important international consultancy which single-handedly defined the principles of brands and branding. Travelling the world, I scarcely ever came across a British brand of beer, in spite of our having one of the world's largest brewing industries and some of the world's most differentiated beers. I determined that if I ever sold Interbrand I would start my own brewery and introduce British beers to the world. I also reckoned I might come to own an asset of some considerable value.
St Peter's Brewery has now been brewing fine beer for 15 years. We have a wonderful brewery on a historic moated site in Suffolk
and brew 18 different beers all under a single brand - St. Peter's - and all using the same livery and the same distinctive, trademarked oval bottle. Indeed, more than 95 per cent of our production is bottled and more than half is exported, mainly to the US, Canada, Scandinavia, Russia, Mexico and the Continent.
Our brand is, we believe, far larger in the minds of our customers than it actually is. Indeed, we believe that our brand's reputation, both in the UK and abroad, is such that we have scarcely tapped its potential.
Bottle focus
Hitherto, we have focused quite deliberately on bottled beer because, in our view, it is only possible to truly establish a new beer brand through the 'packaged goods' route. Consumers need the experience of handling a bottle, reading the front label and studying the back label. They need to absorb the 'texture' of the brand and make it part of their purchasing repertoire. Advertising can't do this job and the draught route, on its own, simply cannot convey enough brand messages. We determined that we would not go the draught route until our brand was firmly established.
But now, we believe, the time has come. From later this year, St. Peter's will be available in draught form, initially in the South East and nationwide soon after. We are enlisting the help of Rob Flanagan and his partners, formerly of Adnams, in this and their new company, Top 5 Ventures, is an integral part of the team. Within a few years we expect our UK draught sales to outsell our bottled sales severalfold.
And what of the rest of the world? Already we are shipping significant quantities of keg beer in one-way containers to the US, Canada, Sweden, Russia, Holland and Italy, but the potential is limited as disposable kegs are pricey. New solutions are, however, being investigated.
Building an international brand via the bottled beer route is a difficult and lengthy process but is, in our view, the best way to go.