C&C hopes UK ad campaigns will revitalise Magners
C&C Group hopes a series of new ad campaigns will help grow its Magners cider in the UK to levels more in line with the performance of the overall cider market.
While the UK cider market has been growing around the five per cent Magners has seen its fortunes slump from what John Dunsmore, chief executive of the Dublin-headquartered C&C, admitted were the "halcyon days of 2006".
But Dunsmore said he hoped that a forthcoming focus on marketing the brand would restore its fortunes.
"With our 'Method in the Magners' campaign we hope to create a unique position for the brand in the UK. In the past there has been much emphasis on advancing the cider category; now we want to do this with the Magners brand," he added.
Speaking as the group announced its results for 2009, Dunsmore said he was confident C&C could grow Magners' volumes in line with the market to between five and 10 per cent in the coming year or two.
The chief executive said he was "clearly pleased" Magners had turned round its on and off-trade fortunes in the UK in the last 18 months, from an overall 23 per cent volume decline against a four per cent rise in market volumes, to a five per cent decline versus a seven per cent increase in the past financial year.
"In the past consumers in a pub would ask for a Magners and if it wasn't in stock and they were offered an alternative they'd say 'no problem'. We've got to come up with reasons why that's not good enough.
"We've spent 12 to 15 months getting Magners' brand proposition right and the challenge now is to re-create the gap between ourselves and other ciders in the customer's mind. If we can do that we can win, and win dramatically."
While the past 18 months had been a period of frenetic corporate activity with the acquisitions of Tennent's from AB InBev and the Gaymer cider business, Dunsmore said the time was now right for C&C to make its assets work in the way its management hoped.
"We've been trying to position the company for long term growth in a range of markets and we believe we have the things in place to do that. Few of the things we've done have really kicked in yet, but they should do in the coming year."
Meanwhile, Dunsmore said he hoped the coalition government would honour pre-election commitments to re-address the duty situation on cider in the UK. A deal was done between the previous Labour government and the opposition that should see the 10 per cent cider duty hike imposed at the last Budget rescinded at the end of June.
He also welcomed calls for a ban on below-cost selling in alcohol and recent pronouncements by Terry Leahy, Tesco's chief executive, on the subject.
"It's quite encouraging that there appears to be a sane, multifaceted approach to tackling alcohol abuse," he said.
"We've always been in favour of minimum pricing and particularly below-cost selling. There's clearly a correlation between price and abuse, and now the government appears to want to tackle some of the high alcohol products that people use to damage themselves," he added.
