During a visit to Weston Cider farm in Herefordshire last week, The Morning Advertiser (The MA) saw apple picking and collection for itself and the processing plant while Hinksman talked about the route to the on-trade, the farm’s founding back in the late 19th century and about some of its brands that are trading well in both the on and off-trade in the UK.
On the difficulties of getting its cider products to pubs and bars, Hinksman said: “It’s difficult. Take one example, like Heineken, who I used to work for. They own a couple of thousand pubs. Obviously, they’re going to focus on their own cider brands and they’ve got a large portfolio of cider brands so it’s very difficult for us to get into some of these pubcos.
Premiumisation offered
“Also, a lot of the big brewers will do portfolio deals, so they’ll offer a range of pricing and support across a number of brands, including beers, lagers and ciders. We focus on cider only so we have to differentiate our products. That’s why Henry Westerns, in the on-trade, which we launched three years ago, is so important to us. It premiumises and it offers something that not many other companies can offer.”
On what Westons has to do to try to cut into more independents pubs, he added they are not as large naturally and are more difficult to service “because you’ve got to have feet on the ground and that’s expensive” and the salesforce team has upped bodies with the employment of six new staff working out on the road.
Hinksman continued: “If you take a pub company like Stonegate, they list our products but they list everybody else’s products as well. So you need somebody to go and see the licensee to persuade them that they should be stocking our product with the story around the provenance and heritage of Westons. We also sell pretty competitively so their consumers can trade up to authentic, proper cider products.”
Staff need to advise customers
And pubs need their staff to tell that story to entice customers to spend their money on cider. Hinskman agreed it is important for staff to get on board and said: “In previous existences, we persuaded sales guys to quiz staff in pubs because not many customers go to a bar and ask for a ‘lager’. They’ll ask for a brand but people still ask for a ‘cider’ so [pubs need to] educate [bar staff] to ask ‘what sort of cider are you looking for? Do you want a fruit cider or do you want an apple cider? And so on.’
“The staff need to know that, and they need to advise. Around here (in Herefordshire), we take it for granted because cider sells as much as it does beer in a lot of pubs.”
Hinksman also talked about the company’s 145-year history and traditional cider-making process, emphasising the use of locally sourced fruit within 50 miles of Herefordshire.
Its two main brand groups – Henry Westons and Stowford Press – target both on-trade and off-trade channels and he also discussed the fact Westons still uses the largest collection of oak vats in the UK, which impart a unique flavour to their ciders.
