Exclusive: SIBA membership for licensees
The Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA) is to open up membership to licensees as part of a five-point plan to ramp up the profile of local brewers.
The central strand of its strategy is to invite licensees to become associate members of SIBA to help establish a direct link between brewers and retailers.
The scheme will be trialled in the south-west after Christmas, with SIBA hoping at least 1,000 licensees will sign up in the first year.
For a small membership fee (around £60) licensees will be privy to exclusive information from brewers as well as classes, invites to events, and their own magazine. There are also plans for an iPhone app to allow exchange of information between brewers and licensees.
"We have always wanted to engage with pubs to allow them to feel part of the brewing community," said commercial director Nick Stafford. "It is a communication channel that hasn't been addressed by SIBA."
Alongside the opening up of membership, SIBA will run a series of seminars to challenge the knowledge and skills of licensees.
"The courses will either be on technical areas such as cellar management or on commercial awareness such as how to use local beers to develop business," said Stafford. "I want licensees to receive their knowledge first hand from brewers. They can use SIBA as a resource."
Sponsorship
SIBA will also "put its money where its mouth is" and spend "significant sums" on sponsoring pubco roadshows and regional BII meetings to help inform the industry about local beers.
"We don't support the BII at all — that's got to be bonkers," he said. "Any new licensees need to know what is going on in our market.
"It is also about awareness and being taken seriously."
Next year will also see the launch of the Indirect Delivery Scheme (IDS) alongside the existing Direct Delivery Scheme (DDS).
Whereas the DDS allows pubco tenants to have local beers delivered direct to them, the IDS will open up the SIBA distribution network to SIBA members from around the country — for example, a pub in Cumbria could receive beer from a SIBA brewer in Devon.
"SIBA fully promotes the focus of attention on the supply of local beers to their community, but it has to accept that the more promiscuous consumer will have a need to drink beers from further afield."
The final strand of its 2011 strategy is to target the super-premium bottled beer category in the off-trade.
"I am frustrated that local beers are priced too cheaply in supermarkets," said Stafford. "I am talking about getting them to stock beers that cost £20-£30 a bottle. These are beers that truly challenge the drinker — a brilliant way to engage entrenched consumer habits."
Five-point plan
1. Open up membership to licensees
2. Launch of Indirect Delivery Scheme
3. Seminars for licensees
4. Sponsorship of BII regional events and pubco roadshows
5. Target super-premium bottled category in off-trade
