Comment: Time for InBev to grow up

It was just a normal Monday morning. Scottish & Newcastle had just opened its books to the Carlsberg consortium. And yet my thoughts were dominated by another national brewer. It was, in fact, InBev, and I had in my hand a press statement from the company.

It was a response to a story we ran on thepublican.com about Young's Pub Company shaking up its drinks range. One of their decisions was to delist InBev's Stella Artois brand in favour of Heineken and Pilsner Urquell.

Now this must be very hard for InBev to sit and take. But even so, the company's response was over the top. "I think Young's are trying to generate some publicity for themselves on the back of commercial negotiations which didn't go their way," said a spokesperson. FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!

And so began what sounded like the long rant of a child who hadn't got their own way… "Young's will regret their decision in the long run," it continued.

This is hardly the first time a product has been delisted. But never before have I seen such a reaction voluntarily posted to a journalist! Perhaps the company is deeply worried about falling distribution and sales of its flagship brand. Times are tough and the decision by Young's to release information to the press about the delisting decision must have annoyed the top brass in Belgium. But the brewer has picked the wrong fight.

This is not the first time Young's has taken a stand on its drinks range. Many will recall the company stating it was going to delist all RTDs from all of its pubs. So there is a precedent.

InBev needs to look at the reasons its flagship brand is losing popularity in the on-trade, rather than throw its toys out of the pram over the loss of one listing. Many years of watching the 'reassuringly expensive' lager leave supermarket shelves for fractional cost has taken its toll on pub companies and licensees. And it takes more than a new font and chalice glass to repair that damage.