THE owner Tennent’s Lager has declared it is reaping the rewards of a major acquisition which ramped up its presence in the drinks wholesale market, while highlighting the opportunity brought by minimum unit pricing for alcohol in Scotland.
C&C Group, which reported a 3.3 per cent rise in operating profits to €104.5 million, completed a deal to take over wholesalers Bibendum and Matthew Clark at Easter last year from the administrators of previous owner Conviviality Group.
Dublin-based C&C said the deal saved 2,000 jobs and gave its brands, including Magners Irish cider, access to a further 25,000 pubs and clubs in the UK, many based down south.
Chief executive Stephen Glancey declared the deal meant it had been a “transformational year” for C&C, turning it into the “largest final mile distributor to the on-trade of alcohol and other drinks in the British Isles.”
And, following a period of stabilisation, he said it C&C is now “on the front foot” with the acquired businesses, with the Bibendum name already having an influence.
Asked whether the acquisition has enhanced its offer to customers in Scotland, Mr Glancey said: “It does, actually. Bibendum is universally recognised in the hospitality space as being the premier wine company in the UK.
“They have an incredible insight team that gets better wines and spirits than anybody else.
“We have already won some business in Scotland because of Bibendum. Some big customers have switched their wine offer to us all of a sudden because of the Bibendum offer.”
C&C reported that Tennent’s, Scotland’s biggest-selling beer, had an “excellent trading period”. While volumes were flat compared with the previous year, it said the brand had increased its market share in the off-trade, and continued to grow revenue in the independent free trade.
Describing the advent of minimum pricing as “one of the most significant and far-reaching legislative changes in alcohol retailing for a generation”, Mr Glancey said it has resulted in consumers switching away from purchases of 24-packs in supermarkets to six and four-packs in convenience stores.
The products most affected have been cheaper, higher-strength alcohol brands such as white cider.
Mr Glancey said: “It has been good for good brands, and not so good for poor brands. The consumer has gravitated towards quality, rather than price.”
He added: “The next thing in Scotland to get our heads round is the packaging return scheme.”
Commenting on trading in the on-trade, he said the tourism, urban and wet-led parts of the market are holding up well, though casual dining and high-end restaurants are finding it tough.
“Young people are not going out and eating as much as their parents,” Mr Glancey said.
Meantime, C&C reiterated that Brexit could bring an opportunity for the company if companies within the European Union (EU) use its manufacturing facilities in Scotland to ensure continuity of supply. “Wellpark is busy just now on the canning lines," he said. "It is people looking for contingencies.
“The difficulty with contingency is we don’t know when we have to be contingent, because we don’t have a [Brexit] date yet.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here