Growth in premium bottled ale is being held back by a lack of shelf space, a leading brewer has claimed.

Marston’s said the premium bottled ale (PBA) market had the potential to double in size over the next five years - from £330m to £660m - but key to this would be increasing the amount of space given to the category.

A seven-day study carried out by the brewer at a Tesco Extra store revealed the PBA fixture received more visits from shoppers than premium lager or world beer - yet typically had a quarter of the fixture space given to premium lager and half the space given to world beers. PBA also had higher penetration than the two rival categories, said Marston’s in its 2013 annual Premium Bottled Ale Report.

It added that availability was a major issue - even in the case of the top 10 PBA brands that account for 40% of category sales but had just 19% of fixture space.

“Increasing the overall category space in line with shopper visits and penetration will improve availability as well as allowing for more effective ranging and communication,” Marston’s said in the report.

Sales of PBA have grown 11.8% year-on-year [SymphonyIRI 52 w/e February 2013], with growth driven by the single bottles that make up 90% of the market. Multipacks - particularly six-packs featuring a mix of a brewer’s beers - was the fastest-growing segment, up 19.6%.

Kantar Worldpanel research showed 350,000 new shoppers entered the PBA category in the past year.

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