Hot to Stock

Every licensee wants to back a winner. So to help you become a winner, the MA recently compiled a brand new listing of the 50 drinks that made the biggest inroads in pubs and bars in 2008. These are what we call the Hot to Stock products, the ones that have won the most new trade customers this year.

They're not necessarily the biggest brands in the business (yet!). The mega brands — the tried and tested ones you've already got on your bar — don't feature in this list, though we do mention them separately as they are the bedrock of any successful pub and so are vital to your business success.

But pubs don't just want to offer the long-established brands. They want to offer some new excitement, something that's happening. Now. So Hot to Stock is all about a number of new — and some revitalised — drinks brands that have bucked the trend and rapidly established themselves in the consciousness of the on-trade.

And we've identified the fastestgrowing brands on a regional basis too, on page 50.

To compile our list, we asked the consultancy CGA Strategy to do the number-crunching.

We asked CGA Strategy specifically to focus on products that offer something outside of the standard "must stock" portfolio of established brands, drinks that can add diversity and dynamism to the bar, and (most importantly) potential additional profits to the licensee.

In some cases, inclusion is due to genuine category innovation (Beck's Vier), in others it is on the back of the spirits premiumisation trend (Ketel One, Woodford Reserve) or riding the category growth wave of highly fashionable world beers and golden rums (Tiger, Havana Club).

CGA Strategy has put together the most detailed analysis of these brands yet published to offer licensees a comprehensive list of the brands that are quite literally "Hot to Stock"…

1. Beck's Vier​

2. Bulmers

3. Amstel

4. Gaymers Original

5. San Miguel​

6. Peroni Nastro Azzurro​

7. Kopparberg

8. Heineken Premium

9. Havana

10. Tanqueray

11. Sol

12. Birra Moretti

13. Aspall Cider

14. Wyborowa

15. Bombay Sapphire

16. WKD

17. Kirin Ichiban

18. Finlandia

19. Red Stripe

20. Staropramen

21. Absolut

22. Fuller's London Pride

23. Asahi

24. Caledonian Deuchars IPA

25. Jägermeister

26. Amaretto Disaronno

27. Old Speckled Hen

28. Charles Wells Bombardier

29. Tiger​

30. Budweiser Budvar

31. Tsingtao

32. José Cuervo Especial

33. Grey Goose

34. Singha

35. Sharp's Doom Bar

36. Ketel One

37. Duvel

38. Magners Draught

39. Corky's Vodka Shots

40. Sailor Jerry

41. Luxardo Sambuca

42. Maker's Mark Kentucky Bourbon

43. Hendrick's

44. Brahma

45. Mount Gay

46. Cobra

47. Woodford Reserve

48. Russian Standard

49. Cumberland Ale

50. Goldschläger