NEWS
ABAC REPORT HIGHLIGHTS IMPORTANCE OF PRE-VETTING The Alcohol Beverages Advertising Code (ABAC) has issued its Fourth Quarterly Report of 2018, which it says highlights the importance of prevetting with the association. In particular ABAC said it is important for alcohol marketers to understand the digital platform that they intend to use and the age restriction controls available for their marketing on that platform. “This quarter saw six breaches of the Code. Three related to marketers failing to check that the social media influencers promoting their products were over the age of 25. This age requirement is important in ensuring that under 18s are less likely to relate to the actors/influencers used to market an alcohol product,” Harry Jenkins AO, the Independent Chair of ABAC, said. There were further breaches relating to inappropriate imagery, encouraging excessive consumption and advertising placement.
“In none of the content breaches outlined this quarter or in fact over the past two years had the marketing or packaging been pre-vetted under ABAC. With a record 1,751 pre-vetting requests in 2018, the Alcohol Advertising Pre-vetting Service continues to be an important aspect of ABAC’s work and an effective means of preventing irresponsible alcohol marketing reaching the community,” Jenkins added. “The use of social media influencers has been a challenge for the industry and for ABAC, primarily due to difficulty obtaining information about available age restriction controls from platforms, such as Instagram. “When using any digital platform it is the marketers responsibility to ask the platform to identify all age restriction controls that are available for their marketing and apply those controls, and to also continue to ask these questions for all new campaigns as social media platforms develop at a rapid rate and the availability of controls will change from time to time,” he said.
AVL’S PROFITS UP BUT PREDICTS VINTAGE YIELDS WILL DROP Australian Vintage Limited (AVL) CEO Neil McGuigan has said that the company’s “strategies are correct” after it posted its half year results, showing an increase in net profit after tax and revenue. However, with this year’s vintage underway, the company has said that the early indications are that the recent extreme heat and dry conditions “have negatively impacted yields across most grape growing regions”. AVL’s net profit after tax for the half year was $6.5m, up from $4.4m in the prior period. This result was driven by an eight per cent increase in revenue to $143.1m, with branded sales up 14 per cent. Speaking about the first six months of the financial year, McGuigan said: “The ongoing improvement in our branded sales has contributed to the 46 per cent growth in our half year result, again reinforcing that our strategies are correct. “The McGuigan brand continues to perform exceptionally well in the UK with sales up 16 per cent when compared to the prior period. McGuigan remains the third largest global wine brand in the UK.” However, the company did also raise concerns about this year’s vintage, which appears to have been impacted by harsh weather conditions. As well as the heat and dry, October also saw frost occur in some AVL vineyards, and McGuigan said: “We are expecting that our vineyard yields will be at least 10 per cent below expectation.” He added: “This will impact our SGARA (Self Generating and Regenerating Assets) income for this financial year. With regard to our wine supply base to meet our growing sales, we had already taken steps earlier in the year to ensure we have enough wine by entering into bulk wine
supply contracts and through the long-term lease agreement on the 10,000 tonne Millewa vineyard.” It was another successful six months for AVL in the domestic market, with Australian sales increasing by six per cent as bottled branded sales increased six per cent and cask sales rose two per cent. Sales of McGuigan increased by 13 per cent and the higher margin brand, Nepenthe, increased by 6 per cent. Tempus Two increased by 3 per cent on the back of promotional phasing with strong expectations following significant growth in the prior period.
NATIONAL LIQUOR NEWS MARCH 2019 | 13