‘Exercise in national harm’: Beer, cider and wine producers talk about the sector

Purveyors of drinks to the on-trade gathered at the London Wine Fair/BrewLDN/Signature Serve exhibition at Kensington Olympia on 18-20 May.

Felix Solis managing director Richard Cochrane says the Spanish wine business he represents has grown to represent about a third of all Spanish wine in the UK across all channels.

“Our strategy is we look very much at the market and then we think about how can we produce wines that people are going to love,” he says. “They brought it to both retail and on-trade through their commercial team, and that’s how we launched that brand.”

“For the rest of our range, we work with key wholesalers, such as Matthew Clark Bibendum, LWC, Inverarity Morton and we work with some of the regional brewers.”

On current trade at pubs and bars, Cochrane says: “No one’s ever seen anything quite like this. You look at the pub closures each day and it’s a complete reflection of an exercise in national self-harm by the Government to ensure successful viable businesses will not always remain that way – that’s not through what they’re doing – but what the Government’s doing to them in terms of all the tax hits. It’s very frustrating.

“To try to mitigate some of that, about six years ago, we started picking some of our wines a lot earlier and that started to reduce the ABV so rather than removing alcohol through in the winery, we pick a bit earlier to give us fresher wine styles that the market wants because people are buying greener, fresher, brighter flavours, and by doing that we also reduce the tax bill.”

SW Wines managing director Dan Harwood says: “There are challenges within the on-trade, but if you’ve got a good mix of a quality offering that people are looking for – that includes both alcohol-free as well as wines with alcohol – you can show the future and direction of the wine trade.

Harwood adds the Government needs to have a clear idea and strategy on what actually want to do to help the sector.

“It’s always a challenge with legislation… new legislation comes in then gets dropped and can also change in the last minute. [They need] a clear communication strategy about what they’re trying to do and if they have a plan, they need to stick to it.”

Attic Brew Co sales & marketing director Oliver Hurlow states its beers are going into independent pubs and bars but has also seen success with some bigger pubcos and cites Mitchells & Butlers as an example.

He says: “They’re always short-term tenders unfortunately so it’s a bit more difficult to have that sort of long-term relationship that we really value.”

“Access to market is a big thing and if we had the ability to sell beer to any pub we’ve walked into, it would be brilliant,” Hurlow continues.

“Big brewers have done what almost any business would in their situation and they’ve made the most of their buying power. Ultimately, it’s a Government issue to step in and hold them back a little bit to level out the market because otherwise it can squeeze out plenty of smaller brewers.”

Chapel Down wines head of on-trade Jamie Staib said the Kent-based business works with about 3,000 on-trade stockists.

He says: “We are bringing a range of English sparkling and still wines to the market and having some great success within the premium on-trade, particularly on the gastronomic side, such as with fine-dining restaurants.”

Staib says its wines are “stocked by many of the Top 50 Gastropubs” and explains there is a great story behind many English producers, which adds to the experience – and there’s been growth for the pubs and bars it supplies.

David Bridge-Collyns – whose kegged Gravity Theory Cider is sold in about 10 pubs including the Thornbridge/Pivovar sites – says he is not experiencing difficulties finding a route to market by selling directly and also through wholesalers.

The founder of the business that uses independent pressers and producers in Herefordshire admits: “Everyone’s been asking me [to put the ciders] into cans. It’s easier to have it in the back bar rather than set up with kegs.

“I always wanted to build my brand on draught first because then your products are in the eye line and you don’t get lost in the fridge.”

He says the Government has helped his business in recent times having changed the tax on fruit ciders. He explains: “Fruit cider used to come under main wine duty, now everything under 3.4% ABV comes under a different category. You’ve got the draught relief on top of that as well.”

His three main draught brands are Gravity Theory Cider 4.5% ABV, Hazy Pineapple 3.4% ABV and Berry Cherry 3.4% ABV.

Canned Wine Group founders Ben Franks and Simon Rollings – who acquired The Copper Crew recently – say their business is weighted 97% to the on-trade.

The company has a high-quality range of canned wines and also a wine draught offer too.

On the draught offer at The Copper Crew, Rollings admits: “If you’re in that eye line on the bar, it makes a huge difference.”

CEO Franks adds: “[You should] put wine on the same level as beer. It gives customers something different and wine needs to do what beer does: brand up elements, table talkers and filling that space.”

He says of the Government: “Cash wise, almost all of our wine is heavily ‘dutied’. A lot of our revenue and operations go into paying duty bills. This is compounded with things like EPR and the deposit return scheme, which is being rolled out in quite a poor way. It’s quite disjointed geographically and it’s not obvious to people still how that system runs.

“You’re putting added burden on, which is hugely admin-based and it’s at a time when it’s tougher than ever for hospitality.

“Anything they can do to increase the clarity but also give people more time to adopt those systems and ease some of that economic pressure would be great.”

Gina Fletcher, head of sales at Surrey-based Hogs Back Brewery, states: “We’ve got a really vibrant and healthy independent free trade around Surrey, Hampshire and we go some way into London.

“We have a number of national companies we service like Mitchells & Butlers and Stonegate, and we often guest in places like Greene King and Fuller’s.

“Our route to market is quite established at Hogs Back Brewery. However, it is infamously complicated and for younger, smaller breweries it might be quite difficult to negotiate and it would be good to see more beer go direct to outlet and not into depot.”

Walthamstow-based Sustainable Wine Solutions, which imports and co-produces wines across Europe and the UK, and offers kegged wines to pubs, bars and restaurants, has a USP in selling English wines via the format because it brings the price down.

It is also seeing success by rolling out sales to Fuller’s pubs and “quite a few independents too”.

Head of wine Calvin Pearson says: “The cost of living is affecting everything. People are drinking better wines overall, so they are having to spend more or maybe drinking less often.

“[The Government needs to] help with costs of the on-trade, especially business rates. They love to whack on duty, especially with wine. They changed it based on percentage of alcohol and now it’s tied with inflation so that’s another whammy.”

He adds to keep costs down, there is a lust for lower ABV wines and big wine companies will purposely manufacture their wines to be of a lower ABV so they can still make the same margins if not bigger ones.

Chance Clean Cider founder John Logue says its non-alcoholic ciders are available in about 1,000 venues along with off-trade listings. For the on-trade, they are in the likes of craft brewery taprooms and Brunning & Price sites on draught and cans.

“Route to markets are traditionally difficult,” Logue admits. “And it’s exacerbated now because they don’t want to have stock on their floor and hold up that cash if it’s not moving.

“You have to approach the route to market by going, ‘Hey, I’ve got these 20 pubs, will you stock it?’ Sometimes the pubs will go, ‘Well, I can’t stock you until you’ve got the route to market.’ So the big focus has been getting into route to markets.”

He adds the company works with Brakes, Matthew Clark, Master of Malt, Pig’s Ears Beer and Dayla, for example, and these business offers a route to market but adds: “You just have to do the hard yards really.”

• If you want to read what these businesses are seeing as trends in the wine, beer and cider worlds, simply click here and here.