Off-trade 51% of total Bulmers here

Bulmers volume sales in the on-trade declined 11.5 per cent in the three months to the end of November reflecting the “very challenging” market for Long Alcohol Drinks in the hospitality sector according to the C&C Group in its Interim Management Statement for Q3, published recently.

However off-trade LAD sales continued to grow to the point were the channel now represents 51 per cent of total Bulmers volume in RoI.

“Significant price-led promotional activity in the off-trade continues to impact net revenue,” commented the company which reported Net Cider Volumes down 4.6 per cent with Net Revenues down 12.3 per cent for the quarter while they were down 9.5 per cent for the nine months to 30th November with overall volumes down 3.6 per cent.

Exports of Magners to the UK were up 5.8 per cent in volume however and 7.8 per cent in value for the quarter with a corresponding rise in volume of 3.6 per cent and value of 0.2 per cent over the nine month period while quarterly cider sales volumes outside the UK and Ireland were up 31.9 per cent in volume delivering a 25.3 per cent growth over the nine month period ending 30th November.

In Net Revenue terms, Magners exports outside UK & Ireland netted growth of 15.6 per cent for the quarter compared to the same quarter in 2010 and 18.3 per cent for the nine-month period compared to that in 2010.

Growth trends in C&C’s beer portfolio continued in the quarter to 30th November with the company reporting good momentum for the Tennents brand in both channels such that beer volume for the quarter was up 23 per cent while net value for beer rose 11.3 per cent. Over the nine-month period beer volumes were up 23 per cent while Net Revenue rose 15.0 per cent.