Authorities urged to investigate the UK on-trade beer market
A report exposing the truth about how the British beer scene is being unfairly dominated by four global companies has been revealed in a move that urges the Competition and Markets Authority to investigate the matter. Jessica Mason reports.
The in-depth report, titled Beer in the UK, has been published by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) and backed by the Society of Independent Brewers and Associates (SIBA) in an effort to tackle the issue of fairness in beer sales in UK pubs and bars.
The findings show how, despite consumers asking for local indie beer, the nation’s brewers are being excluded from bar taps across the UK, even when publicans want to stock these beers.
People’s preferences and palates are being cast aside by powerful big beer domination
The report essentially sets out the reality behind how the nation’s true brewing heritage is being bypassed and also reflects a genuine and authoritative consumer view on how the UK beer scene actually works, or indeed doesn’t work, for beer drinkers and independent brewers, revealing how UK consumer’s preferences and palates are being overlooked in favour of “big beer” taking over.
The report also includes the fact that seven of the top ten selling “craft beers” in the UK are made by just four global brewing conglomerates. Additionally, it addressed how many of the UK’s favourite “continental” and “import” lagers are actually brewed in the UK, bypassing authentic marketing, messaging.
Drinkers are being ‘short-changed when it comes to choice and quality’
Added to this, it shows how SIBA data has shown that the demand for independent beer is 280% higher than the share that these beers have of the pub market.
CAMRA chairman Ash Corbett-Collins said: “Ordinary drinkers are being short-changed when it comes to choice and quality at the bar. Our report proves how the global players are exploiting the status quo to squeeze out independent brewers, to the detriment of ordinary publicans and beer drinkers.”
Pubs need to be allowed to stock more interesting beers than those found in supermarkets
Speaking to the drinks business, report editor Tim Webb said: “We’re asking the Competition and Markets Authority to launch a market investigation into the on-trade beer market. For pubs, stocking beers that are more interesting than those found in supermarkets – such as cask, local brewery or prize-winning – should be a no-brainer. They just need to be allowed to do it, without pressure from pub companies or global brewers to do otherwise.”
Webb told db: “A lot of ‘beer making’ in the UK consists mainly of large foreign-owned companies brewing foreign-branded single-style lagers, often diluted especially for the UK. The market is operated by these firms, excluding smaller independent UK-owned brewers. The latter create jobs because they use more labour-intensive processes; have links with local communities. The big firms cut jobs in the name of efficiency; see local communities mostly as marketing opportunities; and don’t seem to care about our brewing heritage.”
Assessing what needs to be done, Webb explained that “unquestionably, we need to revive interest in the beer styles that are the basis of the global craft beer market – many of which have their origins in the UK” and warned that “the big beer firms don’t seem interested or able to do that”.
The government needs to step up and order a proper market investigation
To tackle the issue, Webb assured that CAMRA is already working to make sure the issues of unfairness at present are understood by the government, and especially ministers in the department for business and trade.
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Corbett-Collins stated that “the government needs to step up, start taking the issue seriously, and take action that matches up to their statements about supporting pubs and the communities they serve.”
He explained that “Andy Burnham recently said that ‘people need to be able to look forward to a night out’. The best way he can deliver on that is by ordering a proper market investigation to sort this mess out and deliver a fair deal for publicans and drinkers, and the independent brewers that they want to support.”
Corbett-Collins added: “If this report makes you as angry as it makes me, that’s good. CAMRA is fighting for changes to the status quo, and I hope you’ll join us and get involved.”
Plus, noting how sitting back and “doing nothing” has made the British brewing scene a “national embarrassment” Webb insisted that things had reached a point where they simply could not be ignored any longer.
‘Competition authorities need to investigate, take apart and reassemble’
He insisted that “the fact that a narrow clique of multinational corporations dominates the UK brewing industry is a national embarrassment. They only make beers that suit their production facilities, ignoring the types that beer lovers want to drink., they do not know how to reverse beer’s downward spiral, make little profit, and brew nothing worth exporting. They cannot grow the UK economy. The way that better, independent, brewers are excluded from the on-trade beer market is scandalous. Brewing is a business that competition authorities need to investigate, take apart, and reassemble, so the UK can return to playing a leading role in the world of beer”.
Webb explained: “There are two major pieces of work in the department’s in-tray, waiting for the new Prime Minister and their government to be in place. Those are the Access to Market Review and the Pubs Code Review. We hope that the outcomes of both involve better access to market for independent brewers and a genuine choice for drinkers.”
Looking ahead, Webb told db that CAMRA’s “engagement with parliamentarians and political parties suggests there is widespread support for making sure independent brewing is allowed to fulfil its potential, innovate and thrive – as well as protecting and promoting historic local and regional brands and brewing heritage.”
The current situation isn’t just ‘not fair’ but also ‘grossly inefficient’
At present, Webb reiterated that the present situation “is certainly not fair, but just as importantly, it is grossly inefficient”.
He pointed out that “brewing has lost half of the UK’s alcoholic beverage market in just 40 years and it is still falling. The big beer companies have no ideas about how to turn this around, yet seem, at every opportunity, to get in the way of the independent brewers with the talent and ideas to do so”.
Webb also highlighted how “historically, British brewing led the world, and in the last three decades, beer styles of UK origin have been adapted for sale in over 100 other countries, yet UK brewers get virtually none of that market. If UK brewing is to contribute properly to economic growth, it needs to be encouraged to return to being the once high-quality industry with strong export potential that for centuries it was”.
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