The launch will be supported by a £10m multi-media marketing campaign including television, online, outdoor and social media as well as a significant presence at music festivals throughout the UK.
Listings have already been secured with M&B, Spirit, Intertain, Greene King, Enterprise and Punch, as well as all major national and regional wholesalers.
Fruit cider continues to drive category growth and remains a prime focus for the Kopparberg brand, but apple cider represents the biggest part of the premium packaged cider market.
COS Brands intends to widen the appeal of the apple category by offering what managing director Davin Nugent believes is a genuinely different taste to what is already on the market.
Speaking exclusively to the Publican’s Morning Advertiser, Nugent said, “Innovation through fruit is not enough. The bigger picture is apple cider and we’re opening the gate back into the category. The apple taste in cider has been lost and has become bland, but if the consumers’ reaction matches our customers and the trade press, we’re on to something exciting.”
He said that Kopparberg’s 58% year-on-year on-trade growth has been driven by new consumers attracted to the brand’s innovative approach to the cider category.
Mintel’s Cider Report 2012 shows that cider is now as popular as lager and consumed by 47% of adults,
