Carlsberg's plan for new beers
A senior figure at Carlsberg UK has set out the brewer's plans for a number of brands acquired in the wake of its successful joint bid with Heineken for Scottish and Newcastle (S&N).
Carlsberg takes over full responsibility for the production, marketing, and distribution of San Miguel in the UK from November.
In July, Carlsberg also began selling three speciality beers acquired as part of the S&N take-over - Baltika, Mythos and Grimbergen.
Speaking exclusively to The Publican, Chris Houlton, Carlsberg customer director of national accounts, said that "the change of ownership was the catalyst" for giving new support to the brands.
Houlton said that Carlsberg's planned promotional campaign for San Miguel would include "TV advertising and support at point of sale, worth a number of millions of pounds over the next few years, kicking off very shortly in line with November's take-over."
He added: "The main thing is to reassure customers. We are going to nurture the brand. We think San Miguel has lots of head room to increase sales volumes for trade customers."
Baltika, which was seeing healthy UK growth under S&N is the brand singled out as having most potential out of those acquired in the summer.
Houlton said that Carlsberg would continue to sell it in bottled and keg format but that Baltika, Mythos and Grimbergen "are more niche, super premium products compared to San Miguel's rate of sale. The idea is to form a portfolio of brands at different levels of the market".
Coulton also defended Carlsberg UK's wholesale price increase of 2.3 per cent this month.
"We are doing everything in our power to be low cost and we understand it's not a good time to put increases through to the trade," he said. "However, costs are increasing and we have to do everything we can in terms of being a viable business going forward."
