Brewers go global as UK lager market loses cheer
The British were once synonymous with beer drinking, but results out this week from the world’s biggest brewers confirm that our love affair with lager has lost its fizz.
The beer market is in decline in the UK as Britons turn their back on what is these days often seen as an unhealthy and downmarket drink. The trend has not been helped by a host of factors this year, as the recent round of brewing figures has revealed.
Not least there is the dreadful summer weather that has dampened customers’ thirst for both beer and cider, despite the latter’s recent resurge in popularity.
Magners cider maker C&C has lamented the recent wet weather which caused a sudden decline in cider sales – set to leave half-year underlying operating profits as much as 35% lower. The gloom for the Dublin-based company came in what should be a boom season for cider sales.
Foster’s and Kronenbourg brewer Scottish & Newcastle has also warned that it may not meet full year targets as demand waned amid the lashing rain seen in June and July. But the group noted that the smoking ban introduced across the UK since last March was adding to the weather-related trading problems, predicting that the legislation could knock the entire UK beer market by up to 2%.
Many brewers were hoping that the ban – which came into effect in Scotland in March 2006 followed by Wales, Northern Ireland and finally England on July 1 - would be felt less in the summer, with drinking outside pubs expected to hold up in the sunny weather. The rain, however, emptied pub gardens.
