Sheppy’s new £100k rebrand ‘critical’ for growth
Managing director David Sheppy, who is a sixth generation cider maker at the company, will push annual sales up from £3.5m to more than £10m in the next 10 years, he told MA.
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The rebrand, which cost Sheppy’s £100,000 and follows a redesign just three years ago, will play a vital role in the big the sales push.
“I think at this particular time we were dependent on the rebrand for our brand image to continue to grow,” said Sheppy.
Plans to launch craft cans
“We didn’t change our logo in the redesign three years, but have done it this time and it [the redesign] is critical for us.
“Our sales were not in decline, but we probably weren’t seeing the growth I would have liked to have seen.”
Currently, the cider brand is available in about 100 local Somerset pubs, while the own-label products it produces for Sharp's and another brewer are in around 300 pubs across the country.
Plans to increase sales in the on-trade would see Sheppy’s sales mix move from 40% pubs to 50%, splitting the on and off-trade equally.
As well as an ambitious strategy to boost business in the on-trade, Sheppy has plans to launch a range of canned craft ciders, which he rightly identified as a big growth area in the segment.
“We are looking to launch something new, something that is doing quite well in the industry at the moment, and, I don’t want to say too much, but that’s canned craft cider,” he said.
End for four products
The new launch, however, has come at a cost. The 200-year-old Somerset-based producer has culled four products from its range following the redesign, including two single varieties and two fruit ciders, and added a cloudy variant.
Sheppy explained: “We had too many ciders. We are a small-to-medium-sized producer and we just needed to lift our image in line with the market.”
Within the new look range, which will be officially announced next week, there are seven variants including Original Cloudy (4.5% ABV), 200 Special Edition (5% ABV), Classic Draught (5.5% ABV), 2016 Vintage Reserve (7.4% ABV), Kingston Blanc (6.5% ABV), Dabinette Apple (6.5% ABV) and Cider with Raspberry (4% ABV).
The latter was Sheppy’s most popular fruit variant, which made the cut above the other fruit variants. However, there will be seasonal appearances from former and new flavours, he added.
