The non alcoholic lager market is a shadow of its former self but Guinness still believes it can make money out of it. Such is its faith that it is spending £2m supporting Kaliber this year. This includes a £1m TV campaign which is planned to go national next year. This is the first time the sector has had TV advertising since 1992. In its heyday a decade ago, the market was reckoned to be worth £200m and boasted a host of brands. Most have gone as consumers turned away from the market and used the drinks as distress purchases when alcohol was not an option. The market is now worth £33m of which the Guinness brand Kaliber claims £25m and 82% of the volume sales in the off-trade. Its main competitor in the sector is Clausthaler. Despite the poor image of the sector Kaliber, has increased sales by 5% over the last two years. Guinness is hoping to boost this by unveiling a new version of the brand in which the liquid has been changed and the bottle redesigned. The brand's target audience is now men over 30. Brand manager Geoff Bond said: "These are beer drinkers who do not need alcohol in the way they did when they were younger." He said focus groups had liked the new bottle, which has changed from brown to green glass, and the liquid which is produced through a new process. The regional TV campaign runs in Yorkshire in August and features the line Only the beer gets drunk'. This will be supported by off-trade sampling in unusual places. {{DRINKS }}

Topics