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Cider is drunk all year round — it’s more about the occasion than the season, and cider quite readily holds its own against other categories over the winter months
Is it just a summer drink? “Cider has outgrown its seasonal pigeonhole, although of course it is — and will remain — a popular summer choice,” says Carlsberg UK’s vice-president of marketing, Liam Newton. “Cider styles have become so varied that they can be enjoyed year round for a number of drinking occasions.” Innovation within the category will help to further drive this, suggests Liam: “Consumers want to see interesting flavour combinations, served with theatre, while delivering on key touchpoints including brand quality, heritage and authenticity.” Last year Carlsberg launched Bad Apple to meet just these criteria, while other producers are taking cider out of the traditional a fternoon beer garden and later into the night, as typified by Heineken’s Blind Pig range. On top of this there are mulled ciders and cider cocktails, which appeal beyond the sunny afternoons. “Cider is drunk all year round — it’s more about the occasion than the season, and cider quite readily holds its own against other categories over the winter months,” says Rob Sandall, on-trade director at Thatchers Cider.
Fruit cider fun Increasing competition from not only its own, rather overcrowded, category, but also from other sectors such as cocktails, fruit wines and even ready-to-drinks, is making life tougher than it used to be for fruit cider producers. Nonetheless the category continues to perform — up 7.9 per cent in volume across the whole market (CGA, Total GB, to December 16). Rob Salvesen, senior marketing manager at Cider of Sweden (which owns Kopparberg), puts this down to the sector’s ongoing ability to recruit younger drinkers using “an excellent understanding of consumer trends, relevant taste profiles, innovation and consumption occasions”. The most popular flavours are mixed fruit and strawberry & lime, which remain the number one and two packaged variants, although more exotic flavours are beginning to make their mark. This can be seen through the success of launches such as Brothers Cider’s coconut and lime and Heineken’s Old Mout range, which features four variants including passionfruit & apple and the recently reformulated strawberry & pomegranate. Fruit on draught continues to make waves as well, with Strongbow Dark Fruit remaining one of the most successful product launches in recent years — it contributed an astonishing 74 per cent of growth in the draught cider category in the year following its launch in 2014.
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trade.inapub.co.uk 22/03/2017 01:45