Off-trade On-trade

Beer market shows marginal growth in 2015

On-trade beer volumes declined by 0.6% last year, reversing recent improvements in this channel according to Heineken Ireland in its 2015 Performance Overview, published today.

In contrast, the off-trade beer channel saw a return to growth of 2.1% following a decrease of almost 4% in 2014.

Overall, the Irish beer market showed marginal growth of 0.4% in volume to 4.2 million hectolitres in 2015 offsetting 2014’s decline of 0.3%.

The larger Irish Long Alcohol Drinks market (comprising beers and ciders) saw a decline of 0.1% in 2015, with volumes now at 4.86 million hectolitres. However Heineken Ireland outperformed this market, growing its own share of the total LAD market by 0.3%.

Within the LAD market, the cider category witnessed a decline of 3.3% comprising a fall of 5.3% in on-trade volume and a decline of 1.6% in off-trade volume.

However Heineken Ireland’s share of this market now stands at 5.4% via its Orchard Thieves, Symonds, Scrumpy Jack and Stonehouse portfolio. Orchard Thieves is now ranked third in the on-trade channel and fourth in the off-trade channel.

“2015 saw Heineken Ireland record market share growth of 0.3% in the beer and cider category, performing ahead of the market and delivering another strong year for the company,” commented Heineken Ireland’s Managing Director Maggie Timoney, “ The launch of our new cider, Orchard Thieves, last May was a big success.  Orchard Thieves now commands an impressive 4.3% of total cider and outperformed the declining cider category.”

The Cork brewery saw a 1.4% jump in revenues to €512.6 million from 2014’s €505.5 million.

Coors Light enjoyed another year of growth with market share increasing in both channels while the Desperados and Tiger brands both delivered “high single digit growth”.

Parent company Heineken nv reported a 3.5% organic growth in revenue to €20.5 billion with a 6.9% rise in Operating Profits to €3.4 billion. Consolidated beer volumes were up 2.3% organically.


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