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News
UK doesn’t give a XXXX for Castlemaine
Australian lager Castlemaine XXXX is being withdrawn from the UK market due to slumping sales and increased competition.
AB InBev, which brews the beer in the UK under license from Lion Nathan, will not have its deal renewed when it expires at the end of this month
An AB InBev statement said: “The mainstream lager market in the UK is subject to challenging market conditions.
“Also, in an increasingly globalised world, Lion Nathan has taken the view that maintaining varied brand positioning in different markets is not in the best interests of the XXXX brand.
“Consequently, Lion Nathan has taken the view that it is not in the best long-term interests of XXXX to continue marketing the brand in the UK.”
The news brings an end to 25 years in the UK market for a brand which was first brewed in Australia in 1924.
Sales initially soared once the license to brew it in the UK was transferred from Carlsberg to InBev in 2002, helped largely by a tie-up with Rugby League.
Things started to go wrong for the brand once InBev started focusing on other brands and new launches, such as lower-strength variants of Beck’s and Stella Artois. These new competitors, coupled with the general downturn in the UK market, eventually forced the decision to withdraw XXXX from the UK.
Alan Lodge, 08.06.2009