Scotland’s most valuable off-trade cider brands

Does fruit hold the key?

OUR current millennium is in its 15th year. In that period one of the most fascinating drinks categories has been cider.
After a period when quite strong ciders in 330ml bottles (think Diamond White and K) had first soared then settled the market had returned, largely, to its steady state – dominated by a couple of major brands in the on-trade and in PET in take-home, with some scrumpy and specialist stuff and some higher ABV products around the edges.
In 1999 Republic of Ireland-based Magners launched in Northern Ireland. Reassured by success in the pubs and clubs of Belfast, the brand owner C&C took the concept of the over-ice cider serve to Glasgow. Eventually its large single-serve bottles made their way into the off-trade. Fast forward to now and cider ranges are some of the most diverse of any drinks category in supermarkets and c-stores. There are products and packs of different styles and sizes from cider heartlands across the world. There are ciders carrying the names of everything from major European beer brands to small Swedish villages.
The boom has slowed but off-trade cider sales in Scotland are still growing. And they’re growing at 3% – that’s real-terms growth, ahead of the rate of inflation.
At almost £97m Scottish off-trade cider sales are worth more than the combined total of ales, stouts, RTDs and speciality drinks. But it’s really quite a volatile category and it’s one that is very important for retailers to watch.
In the early days of the cider revolution it was about emulating the over-ice pub serve of Magners.
More recently it seems to have been all about fruit cider.
But the Nielsen ScanTrack figures for the Scottish off-trade show that in 2014 a number of different brands, and different types of cider showed growth and some others, including some in the apparently trendiest sections of the cider market, did less well.
The top three ciders in our latest table are the same as last year – Strongbow Original (which is the biggest Scottish off-trade cider brand by far), Magners Original and Kopparberg Mixed Fruit.
But, while Scottish take-home cider sales as a whole saw 3% sales increase, the top two brands in our list were actually down slightly (each by 1% year on year).
But jumping into fourth spot, from last year’s sixth position, with growth of 33% (some
11 times faster growth than the market overall) was
Frosty Jack’s.
And Frosty Jack’s brand owner Aston Manor Cider, has big plans this year for the brand.
It’s about to unveil a new look and an extended product range after carrying out what it says was a major consumer research project.
Frosty Jack’s products will become available in 500ml cans. And the brand now has three variants as permanent parts of its range: the original Frosty Jack’s cider; a golden apple cider at 6% ABV; and a new mixed berry flavoured fruit cider at 4% ABV. Frosty Jack’s mixed berry will be available in a one-litre PET bottle. The firm says it’s the only fruit cider in that format.
In fruit cider more generally the performance of established brands in 2014 in Scottish off-trade outlets was mixed.
Kopparberg Mixed Fruit Cider, the top selling fruit cider in Scottish shops, not only retained its number three position in the cider table but actually came very close indeed to stealing the second spot from Magners Original.
If similar sales patterns are repeated this year Sweden will certainly overtake Ireland.
As well as its progress with its Mixed Fruit Cider, Kopparberg also saw good sales growth from its Strawberry & Lime cider, which achieved almost £5m sales. But sales of its pear cider dropped sharply. It looks as if, more generally, pear wasn’t exactly flavour of the year last year.
And while the market-leading cider Strongbow may have seen sales slip a little it has been joined in the Strongbow stable by the brand’s own fruit cider variant Strongbow Dark Fruit, which in 2014 saw sales more than double to reach
almost £4.4m and take seventh position.
On the other hand, some fruit ciders did less well in Scottish off-sales over the last year.
In 2013 Bulmers Crushed Berries & Lime, then called Number 17, had shown 26% growth. Last year it fell by 9%.
And the other major Swedish fruit cider brand Rekorderlig racked up 2013 growth of 59% for its Strawberry & Lime cider. This year Nielsen recorded a 9% decline.
All told, this year’s cider chart shows an especially polarised category.
Stella Artois Cidre, Bulmers Original, Scrumpy Jack and Omega White Cider are all down.
But Henry Westons Vintage moved into the top 10 (in number 9 position) with sales growth of 7% that comes
on top of growth of 33% in 2013. The product has made very significant Scottish off-trade progress in the last two years.
And back with something of a bang is the Somerset cider Blackthorn, once a Scottish favourite with a major presence in pubs. Complete with a new look, it saw sales rise by 36% in Scottish off-sales.

Scotland’s top off-trade cider by sales value :