WKD is breaking into the cider market
It’s the brand’s first move into non-spirit products since 1996.
WKD Core is a 4.5% ABV apple cider, packaged in 500ml green bottles featuring the familiar WKD logo. It will be rolled out to the trade from early May.
The cider is aimed at longstanding fans of the brand, as well as new recruits that will appreciate the personality of WKD but don’t consume ready-to-drink products, according to Beverage Brands marketing director Debs Carter.
“We see this as a huge opportunity to broaden the appeal of the WKD brand and at the same time bring a new edge to the cider category, which is continuing to flourish,” she said. “We believe there is still room for expansion by taking a different approach, as research has shown that there is demand amongst cider consumers for a sweeter, lighter cider drink with a more modern image.”
A marketing campaign including TV advertising, online activity and sampling will accompany the launch.
via thegrocer.co.uk | Articles .
Point-of-sale material is available to the trade, and – with Beverage Brands advising that WKD should be stocked in fridges alongside other ciders, not RTDs – cases will be boldly labelled ‘Please put me with cider’.
Matt Helliwell on the ukcider email discussion group pointed us to an interesting article on the BBC website about the National Trust campaign to retain what’s left of the country’s traditional orchards.
Orchard losses ‘threaten species’
Traditional fruit orchards are vanishing from England’s landscape – with serious consequences for wildlife, conservationists have warned.
The National Trust says 60% have disappeared since the 1950s, putting local varieties of apples, cherries, pears, plums and damsons under threat. It is launching a £536,000 drive to reverse the decline of the orchards. Their trees provide important habitats for species such as the noble chafer beetle and lesser spotted woodpecker.
The orchards – some with as few as five trees – also offer sources of pollen and nectar to bees, which are thought to be declining partly because of a lack of suitable food. Pressure from commercial fruit growers has led many small-scale producers to develop their orchards or convert them to other uses.
via BBC NEWS | England | Orchard losses ‘threaten species’.
Magners are downsizing everything as a result of the recession, euro vs pound exchange rate, bad weather and customers wising up to the relatively inflated price of brand advertised so-called premium ciders. This leaves them with an enormous lake of unneeded apple juice, or is it a glacier of concentrate?
?C&C also said that its stock holding of apple juice was excessive in light of what it will need in the future. The intended disposal of this surplus stock will result in a write-down of approximately €11m.
via RTÉ Business: C&C says market conditions worsening.
What does an amount of apple juice that can lose value to the tune of €11m look like?
Two unrelated provocations cause me to blog about the nature of cider and where it belongs related to other beverages. The first is a resurfacing of the old strategic conflict as to whether it’s worth putting an effort into attempting to reform the soul of real ale organisations in order to push them more in the direction of understanding cider and perry. The second is a call from a wine blogger to widen the conversation about wine into the wider food and drink blogosphere.
So all I want to establish at this point really, is the fact that cider and perry have a lot more in common with wine than they do with beer.
Wine and cider are made from pressed fruit juice which is left to ferment and mature slowly. They are not made from a selection of recipes which always produce an identical product year in year out like beer, which is created from chemically neutralised and adjusted water with added malt sugars and hops flavourings.
Each craft cider or perry maker develops their own blend of fruit and either natural or selected yeast fauna. The vintage will vary from year to year almost as much as the terroir from one cider producing area to another.
The problem is that industrial cider is seen as little more than an alternative brand of lager beer, but this has nothing to do with the full juice craft cider which we promote at ukcider. And the role of cider and perry within the real ale organisations will always be a minority role, and that has proved to be much more of a restriction that it has an opportunity. Real cider and perry need a campaigning organisation of our own, not one tied to the interests of the lucrative beer festival organisers, which will always attract overwhelmingly beer drinkers.
In the meanwhile we would do well to explain , explain and explain again that cider has much more in common with other fruit wines than it does with beer. You need to understand that in order to produce quality craft cider, and to appreciate it too. To that end we would do well to read, learn and associate a lot more with our European counterparts with small vineyards who produce craft grape wines than with the beer drinkers.
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