CIDER: Pear necessities

Although cider’s growth has slowed, the category is still way ahead of other drinks in the UK. However, brands realise that to maintain interest they need to keep innovating with new varietals, such as perry, and dispensing techniques. By Clinton Cawood

The explosive rise in cider’s popularity may have slowed, but as producers are quick to point out, the category is still doing impressively well – far better than other drinks categories in the UK. The recent flurry of development within the category only serves to confirm this.
Stephen Mosey, cider marketing manager at Scottish & Newcastle, explains: “Because of the phenomenal growth in recent years, people are starting to say that cider’s starting to plateau, but that detracts from the fact that it’s still the fastest-growing drinks sector.” He adds: “In terms of where it can go in the future, there’s still enormous potential.”

Category growth
The steep rise in sales has been nothing but beneficial to the category at large. The realisation by a number of producers that this was becoming a category with significant potential resulted in major investment, not only in terms of product, but in marketing terms as well. This in turn has fuelled further growth of the category. As Thatcher’s Martin Thatcher puts it, “Consumers have been coming into the category on the back of the advertising. Inevitably the advertising is bound to help the category. We’ve always had these great products, but haven’t shouted loudly about them.”
Gaymer Cider Company managing director John Mills confirms this. “There has been significant advertising support – nearly £25 million was spent last year at rate card,” he says, citing Nielsen Media Research figures on total cider advertising in 2007.

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