Cask sales to return to growth by 2010

Cask ale continues to out-perform the overall beer market, and is set to return to actual growth in 2010 or 2011, according to new research.

In Nielsen's GB Cask Ale Market Report, made broadly available annually among trade magazines and brewers, analyst Graham Page says: "It must be said that smoking bans, duty hikes and the economic downturn have impacted Cask's 2007/8 recovery and it may be late 2010 or 2011, before we might see year on year growth."

While the volume of cask beer sold by the on-trade was down 3.3 per cent year-on-year in 2008, its overall beer sales were down 9.5 per cent.

The report puts these trends down to several factors. An increasing appetite for cask beer among consumers is causing it to make up an increasing proportion of pubs' draught beer sales mix, and guest beer schemes are giving small brewers more significant distribution than has been the case in the past.

Cask ale now equates to just under 13.5 per cent of the on-trade draught beer market, according to the report. Up against keg products, cask ale accounts for 34.5 per cent of ale sold in the on-trade. Almost 40 per cent of pubs now stock cask ale.

"There is growing evidence, that some regionals and micros are seeing 20 per cent plus cask growth," notes Page.

"SIBA (the Society of Independent Brewers) say its membership is growing at an average of 10.3 per cent, as they get wider distribution into pubco estates and the independent trade via wholesalers, though this growth is presently largely balanced off by declines in the old national brands."