A man on a mission

Colin Pedrick is anything but fazed by the challenge of making Interbrew the top UK brewer by 2009. Rosie Davenport meets him to find out how he plans to square up to the competition

Most bosses would expect their teams to break out into a sweat at being told to increase their sales by 50%.

But if Colin Pedrick, Interbrew's on-tradeMD, is unnerved by chief executive John Brock's pledge that the company will overtake Scottish & Newcastle as UK market leader by 2009, he's not showing it.

Meeting him a few months after the company announced its intentions, Pedrick seems fired up by the challenges ahead, a characteristic he first embraced as Unilever's youngest salesman at the age of 17. Back then, travelling around London's East End in a van packed full of the company's wares ­ everything from frozen peas to chocolate mousse ­ his job was to beat the prices offered by his rival, the "Findus man".

Now the stakes are considerably higher, with Interbrew standing in third place in the league table of the UK's top brewers, having 17% of the on-trade market, behind Coors on 20% and S&N way ahead on 26%. But Pedrick is confident that Interbrew UK has the strategy in place to achieve its objective of becoming the number one brewer across both on-trade and take-home. He points to the fact that Interbrew UK is already the clear leader in take-home with a 27% market share compared with Scottish-Courage's 22%, and says that the company is well placed in Scotland with Tennent's ­ where it has more than a 60% share of the standard lager market.

And he adds: "We've got a very active development programme in place. We're just launching Brahma in the UK, our speciality beers are doing well and we're expanding the range with the addition of Artois Bock. We're also bringing Beck's into the Interbrew UK portfolio this summer ­ the addition of Beck's alone will increase our market share by 1%."

CV reveals depth of experience

"There are challenges, but it's a great marketplace to be in," says Pedrick, with a bullish optimismthat proves he's much more than the "simple salesman" he professes to be. This is confirmed byhis CV, which reveals the depth of experiencehe has amassed since joining Whitbread in 1979. From overseeing lemonade brand R Whites,he moved on swiftly to a series of pub-related positions including free-trade director for London. In 1989, when Whitbread snapped up Boddington's, he moved north to take on the challenge of integrating it into the core business.

His management skills eventually saw him drafted back down south to take up the post of strategy director, from where he became customer services director in 2003, before taking on the top job in the on-trade.

But in the literal sense, Pedrick is still a travelling salesman, refusing to let the conventions of corporate life interfere with his own working style. He avoids the trappings of being chained to adesk in Interbrew's Luton office, doing most of his paperwork in the back of his car. "I don't even own a computer," he laughs, acknowledging how surprising this must sound. "It's better to be out there on the road than in an office."

His hands-on approach means he puts himself at the centre of negotiations with pub operators, arguing that developing relationships with customers is vital to avoid things degenerating into a pricing scrum.

Referring back to his Unilever days, he explains: "I don't think you necessarily get on in the on-trade (just because of a grocery background). The difference between supermarkets and pubs is that relationships still count in the on-trade."

He does, however, concede that it's not all a bed of roses, admitting that you still get the odd "stand-off or row over pricing". And he predicts that conditions will get tougher.

"We've seen the continued consolidation of big multiple (pub) businesses and they have become as powerful as multiple take-home businesses. But a big leasehold company is still very different to Tesco. As these businesses need to show more like-for-like sales growth, suppliers and operators will need to work closer together. As the opportunities for consolidating decrease, everyone will be under more pressure."

Pedrick says he encourages his sales team to focus on building long-term relations with customers to find ways of responding to these pressures other than cutting price. "We hate price discounting. We are investing a lot of money in our brands so retailers can charge a premium ­ the emphasis of all our work is on the premiumisation of beer."

Focus on beer image and quality

Aside from raising prices, which Interbrew has already done, another part of its strategy is to focus on driving volumes by increasing the number of times consumers buy beer ­ "beer occasions" in marketing speak.

For Pedrick, improving the image of beer, along with its quality, is key.

"One opportunity for the on-trade is to get the retail opportunity more consistent. The most successful pubs are not the cheapest but they've got their products right. Consumers are investing millions in doing up their houses, on buying things like DVDs. Why would they leave all that for an inconsistent experience?"

On a marketing level, Interbrew plans to use its muscle to encourage more consumers to drink beer, and plans to target consumers aged 45 and above. "We need to understand their needs rather than use in-your-face advertising. No-one really advertises wine at them but they have ended up drinking that."

Pedrick talks energetically about his take on the issues facing the trade, emphasising the depth of his role from salesman to strategist, a divide he is acutely aware of. "When footballers give up and move into management they say they miss the changing rooms," he says nostalgically. "There are some aspects of corporate life that I don't like but I like being in a big company with lots of energy."

As the pressures of moving Interbrew up a gear kick in, Pedrick's policy making will no doubt increase, but you sense he won't settle for a place on the sidelines.

"We have to make the on-trade more dynamic and stop it being less like Eastbourne," he says.

He believes Interbrew is leading the way by creating a "younger and mixed-gender sales force" to harness the company's enthusiasm.

"I'm trying to fuel this energy and momentum to create a platform for growth," he adds, with a confident determination that says S&N and Coors are right to keep checking their rear-view mirrors.

Pedrick on:

Beer quality in pubs

"It's a big challenge for some of the bigpubcos. If you did 10 calls and ordered a pintof different beer in each one, you would find something wrong ­ head size, it was not served in a branded glass, or it was served with asurly face."

A smoking ban

"It would present as many opportunities as it does challenges. It could be the catalyst for ideas on how to create new drinking occasions in pubs."

Closure of Boddington's

"When Whitbread bought the business, it was in huge decline and was going nowhere. Despite the quality of the ads and innovation such as draught flow in cans, cask continued to suffer. It's sad the brewery closed, because I had a couple of good years there."

Low-alcohol beers

"It's not a route we would follow at this time. People want luxury and drinking a low-gravity beer doesn't do it for me. Sitting down with a Leffe or a Kriek is more indulgent."