Doom Bar booms

Sharp’s Brewery has announced ambitious plans for its flagship brand, Doom Bar, after sales increased by 51% on 2009.

Joe Keohane, director at Sharp’s, said: “We believe that Doom Bar has the potential to not just be the biggest cask beer brand in the on-trade but the biggest ale brand in the on-trade within three years.

“The growth in cask beer is set to continue and Doom Bar is a brand leading that movement and we feel it can become bigger than the major keg ale brands.”

In just two years, Doom Bar volume sales have doubled, with 95% of this business coming from the on-trade. The brand has seen particular support from Enterprise Inns, where it has become the second highest-selling cask brand across the pub group’s 7,000 venues around the UK.

Ted Tuppen, chief executive of Enterprise, praised the brand’s “proactive approach” to marketing itself, noting that “high levels of pub-specific support and working in concert with our head office team has helped take Doom Bar, within five years, from local Cornish ale to our second biggest brand nationally with strong sales across the south and particularly within London.”

The brand now plans to achieve its growth plans by expanding further into the north of England. Keohane justified his ambitious aims for Doom Bar, saying: “It might seem a tall order, however we feel that as we build distribution and invest behind the brand we can deliver something that will be a major benefit to pubs and bars.”

Gabriel Savage, 14.12.2010