Scottish Courage is to promote responsible drinking by scrapping extra free deals on its plastic bottled cider range.
From January next year, ScotCo will stop extra free for market-leading brands White Lightning (50% free) and Strongbow (25% free), as well as scrapping deals on Woodpecker and Symonds Original.
However, prices for the reduced pack sizes will remain the same, meaning that drinkers of White Lightning will in effect be paying 50% more per litre as bottles shrink from three to two litres. ScotCo said it expected to lose at least half its volume in the first year.
Off-trade sales managing director Keith Hogg said there was growing unease over white cider’s image as a cheap way to get drunk, against increasing
public scrutiny of the problems associated with binge drinking.
A 7.5% abv three-litre bottle of White Lightning at £2.57, or 11p per unit, contains 22.5 units - nearly double the recommended weekly consumption for women.
“These prices are pocket money,” said Hogg. “In the short term our competitors are going to take share from us, but this decision is not about money, it’s about responsibility. What has been happening to white cider does not fit comfortably with the values of S& N.”
White Lightning accounted for £28.3m in retail value last year, or 42% of branded white cider, while Strongbow has a 31% off-trade share.
ScotCo was this week informing customers, including supermarkets, and said they had been generally supportive.
Hogg said he was asking customers to carefully consider whether to continue selling extra free cider. The company is also reviewing the White Lightning name and plans to put responsible drinking messages on all its brands by the end of the year in a similar way to Coors (‘Industry talks “sensible” unity’, The Grocer Sept 4, p76).
Simon Russell, spokesman for number two cider company Constellation Europe, which owns Blackthorn and Diamond White, said: “We are heartened by ScotCo’s actions because we think it’s a good thing for responsible drinking and to inject value to the category.”
Claire Hu
From January next year, ScotCo will stop extra free for market-leading brands White Lightning (50% free) and Strongbow (25% free), as well as scrapping deals on Woodpecker and Symonds Original.
However, prices for the reduced pack sizes will remain the same, meaning that drinkers of White Lightning will in effect be paying 50% more per litre as bottles shrink from three to two litres. ScotCo said it expected to lose at least half its volume in the first year.
Off-trade sales managing director Keith Hogg said there was growing unease over white cider’s image as a cheap way to get drunk, against increasing
public scrutiny of the problems associated with binge drinking.
A 7.5% abv three-litre bottle of White Lightning at £2.57, or 11p per unit, contains 22.5 units - nearly double the recommended weekly consumption for women.
“These prices are pocket money,” said Hogg. “In the short term our competitors are going to take share from us, but this decision is not about money, it’s about responsibility. What has been happening to white cider does not fit comfortably with the values of S& N.”
White Lightning accounted for £28.3m in retail value last year, or 42% of branded white cider, while Strongbow has a 31% off-trade share.
ScotCo was this week informing customers, including supermarkets, and said they had been generally supportive.
Hogg said he was asking customers to carefully consider whether to continue selling extra free cider. The company is also reviewing the White Lightning name and plans to put responsible drinking messages on all its brands by the end of the year in a similar way to Coors (‘Industry talks “sensible” unity’, The Grocer Sept 4, p76).
Simon Russell, spokesman for number two cider company Constellation Europe, which owns Blackthorn and Diamond White, said: “We are heartened by ScotCo’s actions because we think it’s a good thing for responsible drinking and to inject value to the category.”
Claire Hu
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