Regionality is the name of the game
The regional nature of the market and the rolling programme of seasonal brews that brewers come up with, sets the ale category apart from virtually all other consumer goods, and makes it a great deal more interesting.
A look at the lists of top brands by the number of pub listings shows that the market is still very much regionalised, despite the ubiquitous presence of national nitrokeg brands.
Figures from CGA-Centro show John Smith's Extra Smooth to be the number-one brand at both ends of England, with other nitrokeg brands appearing in the top 10s for both the south and the north and Midlands.
But the rest of the list for the south is made up of brands with a traditional regional focus, despite the claims of bigger regional brewers that they are gaining national distribution footholds.
London Pride occupies second spot, Greene King IPA is third, Courage Best sixth, Abbot seventh and Adnams Best 10th.
The national brewers hold sway to a greater extent in the north and Midlands, with cask versions of Tetley's, John Smith's, Boddingtons and Bass all featuring. Only Marston's Pedigree makes an impression from the regionals.
Scotland remains a different market altogether, with Caffrey's the only brand in the top 10 to also appear on the same lists in England.
"The whole market is driven on regional provenance," says Rick Payne, marketing manager for beer brands at Badger Brewery. "Consumers really want to understand the history and heritage of local brands."
Gareth Smith, co-owner of the Midlands pubco Orange Tree Group says it had gone for only local brews at its new Lansdowne outlet in Leicester. "The Lansdowne is championing local real ales from Everards and Oakham. We found in Nottingham that if we stuck with the local traditional ales our total real-ale sales went up, rather than using national brands."
Charlie Holland, marketing manager at Kent's Shepherd Neame says: "You've got to have a balance. Regionality is very important to us because it is so closely aligned to a lot of the local food-serving initiatives we have. In our own case, although we have beers with their own different styles, there is a very distinctive hoppiness which is characteristic to Kent."
Cains Brewery of Liverpool has a clear policy of aiming to be the brewer that belongs to the city, just as most urban centres had in days gone by. Joint managing director Sudarghara Dusanj says: "We used to have a wholesaling business in the Black Country and we realised there was a tremendous loyalty to local beers like Banks's and Holdens, so when the opportunity came up to buy Cains we wanted to concentrate on Liverpool."
Not everyone takes the same view. Ken Brooker, owner of the Harviestoun Brewery in Scotland, says he's just as happy seeing his products listed in England as he is in Scotland if not more so.
"I've long stopped trying to associate with Scotland. About 10 years ago the amount of English beer being brought up to Scotland was incredible and cask-beer interest grew. A lot of Scottish people discovered hops, even though they didn't know that was what they were getting, whereas before they just had the more malty Scottish style of ale. But I was getting knocked back because everyone was selling London Pride or whatever.
"People have the impression that something that's travelled further is more interesting and worthy of giving a try, which is just human nature, so I decided I'd go and get distribution in England."
Harviestoun's relatively strong presence in England brings variety to lots of handpump line-ups, but brewers operating closer to home have to keep refreshing their ranges to maintain consumer interest.
Holland at Shepherd Neame says: "Seasonal beers inject some energy into the category. They allow licensees to enhance their ranges on a regular basis and give customers the opportunity of anticipating their favourites that might be coming along. Most of the excitement is that they are only available for a limited period of time.
"Some brewers produce seasonal beers on a monthly basis, but when you're very specific to certain dates it can have a downside. A Christmas beer, for example, means that once you've got to December 26 you have a sales issue. We've re-introduced Original Porter as our winter seasonal beer, but the name means that it can be drunk from November through to February. It puts a lot of pressure on licensees if you are very specific."
One answer is to extend the life of seasonal beers. Adnams' limited-edition ales have been so popular that it is considering making some of them permanent, such as its Explorer ale.
Top-10 ale brands by region
North and Midlands
1 John Smith's Extra Smooth
2 Worthington Creamflow
3 Tetley's Smoothflow
4 Tetley's
5 Boddingtons Draughtflow
6 Marston's Pedigree
7 John Smith's
8 Caffrey's
9 Boddingtons
10 Draught Bass
Scotland
1 Tennent's 70/- Velvet
2 Belhaven Best
3 Tennent's Special
4 McEwan's 70/-
5 McEwan's Export
6 McEwan's 80/-
7 Tennent's 80/-
8 Younger's Tartan
9 Caffrey's
10 McEwan's 70/- Smooth
South
1 John Smith's Extra Smooth
2 Fuller's London Pride
3 Greene King IPA
4 Tetley's Smoothflow
5 Boddingtons Draughtflow
6 Courage Best
7 Greene King Abbot Ale
8 Draught Bass
9 Caffrey's
10 Adnams Best Bitter
Source: CGA-Centro
Methodology
CGA-Centro data is based on a sample of 5,600 on-trade outlets. All data is weighted to represent the full Great Britain market. All data quoted in this article was collected during September 2003 and September 2004.
