- Want to find out more about the trends, challenges and opportunities shaping the drinks market? Book your ticket to Drink Tank here now – the new meeting place for the UK drinks industry on 10 November.
At moments like these, a former colleague used to say, “well, that’s capitalism for you”, and they were, of course, correct. Carlsberg (if I may refer to it by its first name) is a global corporation under pressure. There are shareholders to feed. The numbers have to add up.
Following its initial statement, further questions to the company are being rebuffed. Its focus now, it says, must be on its staff, the 300 brewery workers whose jobs are on the line. And we can’t but agree. But the focus, clearly, was not on them when the decision was made. It’s as though this is something terrible that’s happened beyond Carlsberg’s control, and all it can do is manage the impact. That’s capitalism for you.
It’s the same with the brewing heritage of which Carlsberg is the failed custodian. CEO Paul Davies acknowledges what is at stake, but again, it cannot have been a consideration. It’s only now that the company is showing concern for the future of the brands it has neglected since taking full control of the brewery only two years ago. It is seeking buyers to take them on.
Success under independent ownership
They include Marston’s Pedigree, once a celebrated name that became a national brand. It’s not the beer it was but it still has, well, the kind of pedigree that will appeal to a brewer looking to add some heritage to its portfolio. Think Damm UK in Bedford and Old Speckled Hen.
Brands with a strong local following could go the way of Jennings in Cumbria, closed by Carlsberg Marston’s in 2022 and now operating successfully under independent ownership.
Marston’s also brews draught Bass for Budweiser Brewing Group, which has tripled its distribution to pubs since that other global giant suddenly realised it was sitting on a valuable asset and launched a sales drive.
It’s hard to find a Bass drinker that isn’t appreciative of the way the team at Marston’s has realised the recipe of an arch-rival. If production has to move out of its ancestral hometown, it may weaken its remarkable revival but it shows what can be done.
Unable to grasp dynamics
While Carlsberg is right about the precipitous and continuing decline of the cask beer market overall, it was plainly unable to grasp the dynamics within that market that is seeing a growing interest in heritage ales among younger people, as well as older drinkers seeking a nostalgia kick.
But perhaps that was never Carlsberg’s game. Perhaps we will land up in a better place, in which cask ales are brewed by people who understand and care about them.
There is no going back to a mass market for cask. It will find a lower level where it can thrive in the hands of independent brewers and specialist pubs while most pub operators find other ways of serving their communities, even with a blander beer offer.
The sad end of Marston’s is just another stage in that journey.
