Cider brand Inch’s has remained tight-lipped about its future innovation pipeline, after new trademark applications hinted at the imminent arrival of a cloudy variant.
Representatives acting on behalf of the brand have applied to register the terms ‘Inch’s Cloudy’ and ‘Inch’s Cloudy Apple Cider’ with the Intellectual Property Office.
The applications were made under class 32, covering beer and non-alcoholic drinks including fruit ciders, and class 33, covering cider, perry, wines, spirits and liqueurs.
It comes after brand owner Heineken also applied to register ‘Inch’s Hazy’ and ‘Inch’s Hazy Apple Cider’ with the IPO in June.
Heineken UK was “always looking at ways” to grow its portfolio of beer and cider brands and would “often explore a range of avenues as part of this innovation process”, a spokesperson for the company told The Grocer.
Inch’s, introduced by Heineken in 2021, has been a remarkable success story in a challenging cider category, having added £12.5m on volumes up 42% [NIQ 52 w/e 20 January 2024].
Over the same period, total cider volumes fell 7.3%, with the category only mustering an additional £16.5m in sales.
Presently, Inch’s makes just one cider – a 4.5% abv medium apple variant.
A move into cloudy or hazy cider would pitch Inch’s against Heineken peer Strongbow, which already makes a Cloudy Apple cider, and independent cidermaker Thatchers, which added a hazy variant in 2015.
Thatchers Haze is the eighth-largest cider in UK retail, with sales of £36.7m [NIQ].
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