Sales of Real Ale is Rising in Supermarkets
Finally, after years of falling sales and many breweries having to close down, beer drinkers are rekindling their tastes for bitter and for the first time in living memory, beer sales have increased in Britain’s supermarkets while those of lager are on the wane.
The news that drinkers are losing their taste for gaseous continental style lagers has shocked the Campaign for Real Ale (Camra) and has taken many breweries by surprise. The switch to more traditional home-produced beers is showing with sales in UK supermarkets growing by 6.6. per cent with larger sales slipping by 0.2 per cent.
To keep up with this new ‘changeover’ trend, supermarkets have increased their selections. Marks & Spencer’s have even gone so far as to launce a new range of conditioned beers while Tesco has found room on the shelves to hold a further 150 of new brands. Ian Tagett who is Tesco’s beer and lager buyer said “The growth in popularity of real ale in the last few years has been absolutely spectacular, with the greatest accolade being that it had finally started to achieve its holy grail of winning over a younger audience”.
Although total lager sales in supermarkets outnumber those of beer by around five to one, the big retailers are now waking up to how consumer tastes are rapidly changing. In particular, consumers are developing a thirst for 'conditioned' real ales, which are favoured by bitter purists because they contain yeast and continue to ferment until they are opened.
Not all Sweetness and Light
This latest news is not all as sweet as it sounds and looking more closely at the figures shows that the beer industry is really being propped up by an army of smaller players. The creation of 84 new UK micro-breweries has come about with the government’s introduction of a ‘progressive beer duty’ policy allowing them to pay less duty. This has saved many who were struggling to stay in business.
'A taste for ale is something we've also started to see on trade sales,' said Owen Morris, spokesman for Camra. 'Although overall sales of beer are in decline, sales of independent brewers are up 7.5 per cent. People are finding real ale is an artisan product and are starting to care more about taste, not value. They're not so interested in supermarkets selling two crates of lager for the price of one.'
New figures also shows that although the sales of popular larger sales in supermarkets are declining, the good news for wine producers shows that red wine sales have increased by 11.2 per cent and white wine sales were up 5.8 per cent. The biggest increased on any wine by a massive 34 per cent last year has been rosé wine.
The one man who could sum it up in one sentence is that patriotic pub landlord Al Murray who would no doubt be shouting ‘All hail to the ale’ whilst raising his favourite pint of beer.
British beer is most definitely back!