Waitrose beer and cider refresh sees new craft lines added

No comments

Waitrose Beer & Cider refresh

New products listed include Lowrise Hazy Pale and Red Fin Fresh Apple Cider

Waitrose has added more than 30 new craft and speciality lines in a shakeup of its beer and cider offering.

The upmarket retailer has this week listed 60 new beers and ciders, with 31 of these falling into the craft and speciality category. Ten new lagers have also been added, alongside 12 ales and seven ciders.

New craft beers listed by Waitrose for the first time this month include Lowrise Hazy Pale (rsp: £2.25/330ml), Beavertown Cosmic Drop Berry and Watermelon (both rsps: £3/440ml), and Sharp’s Chalky’s Bite (rsp: £2.50/330ml).

In total, around a quarter of the new SKUs were exclusive or first to market, Waitrose said.

As well as a greater emphasis on craft and speciality beers, the refresh included more lighter options to reflect seasonal shifts in demand, said Waitrose beer and cider buyer Jourdan Gabbini.

“With the weather getting warmer, we’re introducing a lot of lighter options which are ideal for sunnier evenings,” he said. “Looking at new lines more broadly, around half are in the speciality and craft areas – partly due to seasonal switches, but also as we know this area performs very well with our customer.”

Craft was “also going strong” within cider with brands like Red Fin, said Gabbini. The Dorset-based supplier’s Fresh Apple and Meloncherry lines (both rsps: £2.85/500ml) have both been added as part of the refresh.

Waitrose has also become the first retailer to stock St Austell’s Big Job – a 7.2% abv IPA (rsp: £2.25/500ml), as well as Home Grown Pale Ale (rsp: £2.50/500ml), an exclusive collaboration between Hogs Back and Renegade made with locally grown hops and barley from Surrey and Berkshire.

“Ales don’t always see their fair share of innovation, so this season we’ve really tried to bring in more new product development,” said Gabbini.

New lager SKUs listed, meanwhile, include multipacks packs of Poretti (rsp: £12.50/10x440m) and Hawkstone Session Lager (rsp: £8.25/4x330ml), as well as Vocation Hilltop (rsp: £6.75/4x440ml).

It comes after Tesco added fruit beers from Beavertown and BrewDog last month as part of a bid to tap UK shoppers’ growing thirst for European-style brews.