Damp squib or roaring success?
While the weather did its best to put a dampener on the Jubilee celebrations, TV screens were nevertheless filled with scenes of hardy folk queuing for hours to wave at a passing hat. Almost unbelievably, more people took to the streets to witness the flotilla on the Thames than did so for last year’s Royal Wedding. But whether that translated into footfall for retailers will only become clear over the next couple of days.
Saturday’s edition of The Grocer will reveal whether a massive push by the trade - in contrast to its relative indifference to the Golden Jubilee a decade ago - was sunk by the rain. We’ll also be asking whether retailers are leaning too heavily on one-off events like the Jubilee to offset worrying longer-term trends.
You can let our news editor know how things went for your business by emailing ronan.hegarty@thegrocer.co.uk or tweeting @ronyhegs.
Meanwhile, another venerable British institution got a morale-booster today with Diageo’s plans to invest a billion pounds in Scotch whisky over the next five years. Not unlike the Royal Family, Scotch is even more popular abroad than it is at home. Exports have grown by 10% a year over the past five years and in 2011 soared to £4.2bn.
Diageo boss Paul Walsh called the investment “a pivotal moment in the development of Scotch whisky”, with the chance to cash in on the sort of “high-growth markets” Diageo is more geared towards since last year’s big restructure.
“Scotch whisky is Scotland’s most celebrated manufactured export, resonating with consumers from Boston to Beijing,” trumpeted Walsh, who was placed well above the Queen in our latest Power List.
“Over recent years our brands have achieved remarkable, sustained global growth,” he said. “This [new cash] builds on the foundations we have already laid down over recent years through sustained investment in both production assets and in maturing Scotch inventories.”
While the big brewers are praying for some sun as Euro 2012 marks the next phase of this distinctly soggy Great British Summer, Diageo’s distillers won’t mind the rain at all.
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