Retail: Beer / Larger lager!

Large packs of lager fared best last summer, helping to maintain value in a rather flat market

The value of total UK off-trade lager sales over the summer of 2005 did not grow, compared with the previous summer, due to decreases in price. Large packs of lager, consisting of 18 or more bottles or cans, were the only SKU in growth, while small and medium packs declined.

Due to the reduction in prices, larger beer packs were attracting more buyers. (While small and medium packs also saw price reductions, these were minimal in comparison and were not enough of an incentive for buyers.) In addition there was an increase in the amount that buyers were purchasing. Can packs, rather than bottle packs, were primarily responsible for this growth in value and buyer numbers.

There was a clear peak for the sales of large packs over the summer months of 2005 (see table right), which can be compared with the dramatic sales growth experienced over the Christmas season. Heavy promotional activity on 20-packs of bottled lager were responsible for this. 

As the table below shows, Tesco was the most successful of the major retailers last summer, taking 30% of the spend on total lager. All of the key multiples, excluding the Co-op, were overtrading in the large packs, but losing out in other pack sizes. Meanwhile the Co-op appeared to focus more on small and medium pack sizes, managing to overtrade in both.

In terms of the top 10 brands for the period under discussion, Stella remained the most popular lager brand in summer 2005, although Carlsberg moved to a respectable second place, having been fifth the previous summer. Meanwhile, Carling and Grolsch fell from second and third places respectively, with Carling experiencing a loss in buyers for all of the larger pack sizes.

© db July 2006