Executive Summary
Only premium lager has shown faster growth among alcoholic drinks than cider
since the mid-1980s, but only by a very small margin.
The former cottage industry has risen above the buffets of taxation by a ladder
of progress through packaging innovations to a conscious and aggressive
delineation of style and segment in cider marketing.
Cider is steadily becoming more popular among style-conscious, discerning and
individualistic males. Indeed, Key Note estimates that nearly one in ten males
is now a frequent cider consumer.
Estimates for the retail value of the cider market in 1992, reach the
astonishing figure of £900m, with the volume expected to rise by over 20%
by 1998. Imports are calculated to be running at around twice the volume of UK
exports.
There has been a sharp change in the seasonality of cider sales which, if it
becomes a trend, has major implications for both retailers and cider makers.
On-trade tactics adopted by leading cider makers to take advantage of the
release of the cider `tie' in 1990 have had to be reviewed. Distribution rights
among some newer public house operators remain to be fought for, but the whole
draught cider market is being complicated by mainstream brands' loss of share
to the new premium draught ciders.
In the off-trade, all brand owners face steadily increasing pressure from
own-label and economy ciders. The report also draws attention to several
smaller companies' whose brands are making strong inroads into the market share
of major cider makers.
Key Note further issues sharp warnings on the growth of market share being won
by imported ciders, principally in the off-trade, while UK cider makers focus
too narrowly on their own brand shares at the expense of the development of
export trade into the Single European Market.
A marked rise in UK per capita consumption through to 1998 is forecast, but
enters several caveats on future trade developments. EC imports are expected to
continue rising to at least ten times the volume of UK exports; the
substitution of premium for mainstream draught brands will increase.
As the number of premium beer and lager brands is `shaken out', their
competition with cider will become more focused. The brewers' wider
introduction of high strength beers around 9% abv cannot fail severely to
reduce if not remove the ascendancy currently enjoyed by premium ciders.
Meanwhile, there have been calls for generic promotion of cider as a natural
accompaniment to food if maximum advantage is to be derived by the industry in
the on-trade.
In the off-trade the major challenge faced by the industry is to persuade both
grocery and specialised retailers to improve the ratio both between own labels
and private brands and between cider and beer facings.
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