The product of another fruitful raid on the pick ’n’ mix stand, Brothers’ Tutti Frutti blends cherry, pineapple, grape and strawberry flavours, while its new Marshmallow variant combines its namesake’s notes with vanilla.
Both new brews are gluten-free, contain zero artificial sweeteners, vegan friendly and available in 330ml bottles – with Marshmallow also sold in a 500ml serve.
While the new launches will be made available on 1 April, Brothers is serious about the variants’ prospects following the success of Rhubarb & Custard – sales of which grew by 119% in the past 12 months – and Parma Violet, which was the third most profitable fruit cider launch of 2019.
What’s more, as reported by The Morning Advertiser (MA), the popularity of Parma Violet and Strawberries & Cream flavours among younger drinkers helped Brothers Cider’s on-trade sales volume increase by 102% according to figures published in August 2019 after launching in March of the same year.
“At Brothers, we always try to provide meaningful innovation in the fruit cider category and have found Greene King to be an invaluable collaborator in this quest,” Matthew Showering, managing director of Showerings Cider Mill – where Brothers is made – explained.
“We believe the distinctive and refreshing taste of our Tutti Frutti and Marshmallow flavours will appeal to cider drinkers, especially Gen Z consumers who are influenced by unusual flavours and social media ‘talk-ability’ in their purchasing decisions.
“Brothers is the fastest growing packaged cider in the on trade and our flavours are hitting the mark with a growing number of consumers that want to experiment with familiar flavours – with a twist”.
Growing demand for on-trend flavours
According to Brothers, the launch of is Tutti Frutti and Marshmallow variants will help the cider maker continue to capitalise on Millennial and Gen Z clamour for unusual, new, or trendy flavours – the preference of more than half (58%) of younger drinkers.
In an effort to reach younger drinkers, brewer and pub operator Greene King has already committed to stock the new Tutti Frutti variant in 1,000 of its sites in time for the Easter break.
“The demand for innovative fruit cider is growing, particularly among Gen Z and Millennial customers,” Calum Cameron, senior drinks category manager at Greene King, said.
“Brothers are known for their on-trend, exciting flavours and we believe this is a combination that will certainly capture our guest’s imagination and taste buds, as well as inspire social sharing.
“We’re thrilled to launch Brothers Tutti Frutti Cider exclusively across our pubs and we’re sure our guests will love it.”
Gin-fluence
Discussing the thought process behind the new off-piste cider flavours that have proven so fruitful for Brothers, the cider maker’s commercial director Marc Charles told MA in May 2019 that the success of flavour profiles in other drinks categories had influenced its new product development.
“Two years ago we went back to basics and asked ‘what are we standing for now?” he explained. “It’s all about unusual, curious flavours that differ from the rest of the category. That’s what led to rhubarb and custard, which has been a very big success for us in the past few years.
“Part of the reason for that was that rhubarb had done well in the gin category. We continued by thinking ‘what does the consumer really want within flavoured cider?’ and continued to look at gin – sweet violet and parma violet is a very fast growing, large category within gin, so we took reference from that.
“However, there are opportunities in lots of areas in the cider category, particularly in the original premium apple cider and, of course, fruit cider continues to grow.”
