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Fifty-seven years after Merrydown released its first cider, the company is experiencing an upturn in fortunes. Phil Mellows meets MD Chris Carr.

Merrydown might be a difficult one to categorise, but you've got to say it's a survivor. Over 57 years it has been blown and buffeted by drinking fashions and the whims of successive Chancellors of the Exchequer. More than once it has been on the brink of being sunk.

Right now though it seems to be on a rising tide, and managing director Chris Carr (pictured)​, who has stuck with the company for more than 20 years, is in belligerant mood.

"I can take Scrumpy Jack," he says, not quite banging his fist on the table. This might smack of over-ambition from one of the minnows of the UK cider market but there are two reasons why he might be right. First is the theory that the takeover of Bulmers by Scottish & Newcastle could see an even stronger focus on Strongbow at the expense of the second-string brand. Then there is Upside Down.

Chris believes he has hit on something with Upside Down. The 5.9 per cent ABV cider originated in typically eccentric Merrydown fashion. The concept came from top ad agency Campbell Doyle Dye (CDD) which, after a chat with Chris, said it would be happy to do the job for nothing, for the sake of an interesting challenge.

It approached a dozen leading artists to come up with a bottle label design based on a merry face that when turned upside down would look downcast. A variety of ingenious solutions emerged and one of them, by illustrator Mick Marston, was put on a run of limited edition bottles.

Before the cider was even officially launched, Merrydown had won three international awards for the design. But would anyone drink it? Trendy City of London bar Cantaloupe gave it a go - and it trebled cider sales there.

It was enough to encourage Chris to put all his efforts into Upside Down, not as a quirky one-off but as a brand with real potential. He aims to produce a draught version for pubs.

"I believe we can replace those Scrumpy Jack fonts with Merrydown's fonts," he said. "I've got this idea of using lenticulars."

You'll have seen many lenticulars but you probably didn't know what they were called. They are pictures covered with a plastic lens that change appearance when you look at them from different angles. So you could have a face changing from happy to sad and back as customers walk along the bar.

Meanwhile, students at Brighton University have come up with another 70 Upside Down designs and Merrydown is widening the contest to another 22 universities. Chris estimates he will have 1,000 different faces by Christmas with the best winning a day at CDD.

Through working with students, Upside Down (pictured)​ should earn a franchise among a crucial section of the cider-drinking public. Some thought has gone into the product, too. It is less strong than the core Merrydown Vintage brand and is described by Chris as "fruitier and fresher with even more apple".

"I'm sure we'll get listings," he said. "Initially we'll be aiming at independent family brewers." One regional has already expressed an interest in trialing Upside Down in its pubs.

"I want to make Merrydown famous again," Chris continued. "In fact, that was my brief to the ad agency."

To Merrydown's advantage, it is a name people remember.

Based in the village of Horam, East Sussex, the company was formed immediately after the end of the Second World War by winemakers Ian Howie, Jack Ward and John Kellond-Knight.

The business flourished until 1956 when the Chancellor, in the shape of Harold Macmillan, made his first assault.

Until then, Merrydown's "cider", knocked out at a whopping 18 per cent ABV at the time, was not subject to duty. The effect was to increase the price of a bottle by a third.

The logical response would have been to reduce the ABV to below the 15 per cent threshold. That's what rival Showerings did with its Babycham perry. But, to be different, Merrydown hiked up its strength to 24 per cent instead.

The result was a 1950s equivalent of today's binge-drinking scandals - and plummeting sales. Merrydown diversified into English wines, cider vinegar, honey and a fertiliser made from a blend of apple residue and rabbit droppings elegantly branded "Bunnymure".

In the early 1960s, the cider was rebranded as "apple wine". But another Chancellor, Denis Healey, put paid to that when he doubled duty on made-wine in 1975, forcing Merrydown to do the sensible thing, drop the ABV and call it cider again.

Sales took off once more. "By 1979 cider was growing at 20 per cent a year and everyone jumped on the bandwagon," said Chris. Merrydown was joined in the market by new brands, such as Taunton's Diamond White, and ciders became the alcopops of that generation.

"We were first examples of trendy drinks for girls," Chris continued. "A lot of the problems of today's cider industry comes from the high alcohol-low cost image of those days, and that's still a challenge for us."

In the mid-1980s Merrydown decided to reduce its dependence on the volatile cider market by buying Schloer, the grape-based adult soft drinks range. That investment has really begun to pay off in the last five years as sales have tripled.

"We now have a solid base in non-alcoholic drinks," said Chris. "We'd have struggled with just cider."

Further diversification beckoned in the mid-1990s when Merrydown took on Two Dogs, the Australian alcoholic lemonade which briefly challenged Bass's Hooch for dominance of the new alcopop sector.

"Sales were soon up to 40,000 cases, all imported from Adelaide," Chris remembers. "So we started fermenting lemons here and 15 trucks a day were leaving from outside this building. Our turnover went from £15m to £40m in a single year. I thought we would be rich. But there were 100 rival products by Christmas and we got beaten up."

The core brand suffered, too. The new drinks had taken the place of cider as the alcoholic entry point for young drinkers. Merrydown needed a fresh focus and got it with a new board of directors. Chris was the only one to stay and, although a production man, was given the MD's position, the company's share price has increased from 30p to 75p and confidence has grown.

"I personally believe Merrydown has a lot of legs in the cider market," said Chris. "Cider is many different things and we have been trying to get back to our brand anatomy."

An agency has distilled that anatomy down to three words: delicious, unconventional and strong, which Chris believes "encapsulates everything".

From being all about tradition, Merrydown has opened itself up to doing new things such as Upside Down and Pulse, the draught perry-based drink that will be sold on the back of Upside Down.

It's as if Merrydown has come to terms with its eccentricity and it wants to make full use of it.

"We have always been quirky," explained Chris. "We don't use cider apples and we use a champagne yeast. It's more like making a wine."

For that reason, Merrydown does not include itself among the "craft" ciders such as Westons and Thatchers. "We're proud to be a cider but I want us to be edgy and different. There is an opportunity for smaller producers to do ciders with flavour, to put premium qualities back into the drink."