A move to the dark side

The phrase 'hiding your light under a bushel' is a well known one, but Budvar could be accused of hiding its Dark under a bushel.

The Czech lager brand's Budvar Dark won the title of Best Lager in the World in September, an accolade awarded by Beers of the World magazine after a blind tasting by an international panel of judges.

It shows the beer - which achieves its colour and taste through a brewing process involving four different malts - is not just a tip top tipple in this humble journalist's opinion.

So why doesn't it have a higher profile in the UK? The product can only be found in just over 100 bars over here.

Slow expansion

Thunder continues to rumble over a possible privatisation of Budvar's state-owned company, and there is a constant round of speculation about a possible buyer, with one name often thrown into the hat being Budvar's bitter rival Anheuser-Busch. Surely impressing more drinkers with a revered beer would be a decent riposte?

Budvar UK's sales and marketing manager Neville Hall says that, as with Budvar's flagship Original brand, it is a case of expanding slowly and carefully, befitting the targeted 'premium' image.

"We would consider the Beers of the World award a boost," says Neville. "It wasn't just voted the best dark lager in the world - it was voted the best lager in the world.

"On the back of news like that, you will always get some calls coming in saying 'can we have some Budvar Dark please?'"Neville has identified Dark as a product which could spark a sub-section within lager in the UK market, as Hoegaarden did.

"We would like to see it being a forerunner for a whole new category. Six or seven years ago, there was no such thing as a wheat beer category. Then Hoegaarden came along, and look at it now," he says.

However, it will take a long and winding road to get there. Dark currently has distribution within Mitchells & Butlers in its All Bar One sites, in the Tattershall Castle Group and, as Neville puts it, "outlets which specialise in quality imported beers". He admits this is limited distribution.

Dark distribution

But the brewer has a strategy in place to improve on this. The first stage is to have Dark in 250 outlets in the UK by the end of the year; to put this into context Budvar Original is currently poured by over 1,200 outlets.

Neville says: "We get there, firstly, by public relations, secondly, by building distribution and thirdly through word of mouth and reputation."

He also points to the drive to get more consumer visits to the brewery, two hours by car from Prague, as a means of raising the brand's profile.

The careful, targeted approach is consistent with the way Budvar Original has been cultivated, by refusing to discount and giving the mass market the cold shoulder.

So perhaps it is fair to say discerning drinkers' hopes that Budvar can bring the Dark into the light, will be fulfilled. But they will just have to be patient.