Thursday 27 August 2009

Inncider deal

It’s reported today that Irish firm C & C Group, makers of Magners Cider, have acquired the Tennent’s lager brands and the associated Wellpark Brewery in Glasgow from Anheuser-Busch InBev. It’s also interesting that they have acquired the distribution rights to InBev brands such as Stella and Becks in Scotland and Ireland, so the two won’t be in direct competition with each other in those territories. It’s a striking fact that Tennent’s Lager still commands over half of total on-trade lager volume in Scotland. It isn’t clear from the reports what is to happen to the iconic tramp fuel brand Tennent’s Super.

I posted last month about the possibilities of such a sale. It’s unusual for a major brewer to divest a substantial part of their brand portfolio in this way, although the nature of the deal seems to make C & C more of a junior partner than a direct competitor.

There must be a large question mark, though, as to whether this deal will actually bring any benefit, or make any difference, to the discerning consumer of either beer or cider.

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