S&N plans to increase on-trade sales by £700m
Scottish & Newcastle (S&N) has unveiled a new five-year campaign designed to increase on-trade sales by £700m.
The S&N UK Category Vision aims to begin the process of reversing the fortunes of a sector that has been in decline since the 1970s and improve the value of Long Alcoholic Drinks (LADs) sales in the on-trade market by more than £700m between 2008 and 2012.
S&N UK's on-trade Category Vision is underpinned by in-depth research - which included interviews with 60,000 consumers - and identified five key drivers of consumer behaviour.
The five key drivers of growth have been identified as:
8226 Food occassion
8226 Female appeal (making bars and long alcoholic drinks appropriate and more appealing to female consumers)
8226 Bloke pub time (driving male footfall back into bars)
8226 Personal reward (providing premium brands that meet the growing consumer desire for a treat or reward)
8226 Care and control (ensuring there is a choice of low/no alcohol products, and reduced calorie products)
Each of the drivers will shape the way S&N UK brands are marketed and sold at the bar.
They will be brought to life via bespoke point of purchase solutions designed to help licensees maximise the opportunity for LAD sales and tailor their product range to meet consumer needs, whilst increasing consumer footfall.
One of the primary aims of on-trade Category Vision is to engage with new and lapsed consumers by attracting new drinkers to the beer and cider categories.
Challenging times
"The UK on-trade is facing some challenging times," said on-trade sales director Lawson Mountstevens.
"Alcohol is enjoying 50% less share of consumer spend than it used to, and off-trade pricing has impacted substantially on the frequency of on-trade drinking.
"The on-trade is faced with a stark choice. We can accept the continuing decline as an inevitability of life - or we can take action now and work together to implement Category Vision and begin to turn the situation around.
"This is not a short-term solution or a 'quick fix': this is a long-term strategy to secure the future prosperity of pubs and clubs across the UK, based on the over-riding premise that consumers must be given a compelling reason to visit and go back to our great pubs and clubs.
"If we can persuade consumers to purchase just one extra Long Alcoholic Drink every three months, the UK on-trade will benefit from sales worth one million barrels over the next five years and that is surely a goal worth striving for."
