Tennent's sold to Magners in £180m deal
Tennent's sold to Magners in £180m dealTennent's, the biggest selling lager brand in Scotland, has been bought by Magners cider in a deal reported to be worth £180m.
The proposed sale by brewers Anheuser-Busch InBev to Magners owner C&C includes the Wellpark Brewery in Glasgow.
Tennent's has traditionally been one of the biggest spending brands in Scotland and works with a number of Scottish agencies for its marketing service needs, including Newhaven for its advertising, Stand for design, 2fluid for digital, Material for its experiential work and Burt Greener for PR.
See C&C Group's presentation on the acquisition of the brand here http://www.candcgroupplc.ie/default.asp or download the presentation here.
Early views on the sale seem positive, with one agency insider saying: "On the surface this seems like fantastic news for the company and for the brand.
"Only time will tell, but I think this is good news for the agencies and for the staff. And hopefully this will turn the brand around to once again be Scotland's favourite lager."
Marketing spend on the Tennent's brand has dropped recently, although it is thought that a significant investment would be made next year to celebrate the lager's 150th anniversary.
Tennent's accounts for 55% of lager volumes sold to Scottish pubs and clubs and around 30% of the volumes sold to off-licences and supermarkets.
Former Tennent's marketing director and now owner of marketing and training consultancy Circuit Break, Gordon Brown, said: "From my end I think they have bought a great set of brands with the jewel being Tennent's Lager. The Market is tough but I still believe the red T has a great place in Scotland's drink industry and if the new owners are willing to invest behind the brand then it has to be good for the employees and the Scottish drinker."
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do we now have to put ice in our pint of lager? and will Tennent's now become the summer drink of choice for London "city boys"....I wonder who's playing "M in the park" next year...
Magners is up for pitch at the moment. Let's all hope they don't do a whole job lot on this brand and shift everything to London and Dublin. A good idea would be to move Magners into Newhaven. They do wonderful work.
Magners + Tennent’s surely a chance to look at launching Snakebite? A hybrid made in heaven.
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On the face of it it makes sense though – it's essentially going to be a lot more independent and not competing with Stella/Brahma and all the other InBev brands.
Tennent's was a difficult brand for InBev to manage I think, because it flew in the
face of their globalised strategy.
limited market and dying brand! Limited to the Scottish market does anyone know of any young people that drink Tennents out with T in the Park?
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Limited market? Northern Ireland drink a lot of it too.
Dying brand? It's Scotland's No 1 lager brand.
I had a couple of Tennents last night! I'm young by the way.
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Anonymous 10.59 yesterday makes sense - although I suspect Mr Shinton wrote this
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Dying brand? - Do your homework Mr Anonymous.
Stuart we pitched for a job on this brand- a brand that is limited in Scotland and small parts of N Ireland. Exact words of the marketing brand manager “was we are limited by our supply area”. “Our main threat if foreign beers and we lose many of our young customers to these other brands”. These are the word of their own Brand manager so please talk sense. Tennent’s is many drunk by over 50's apart from T in the park. Many young people do not buy Tennent’s through choice these are the researched facts and if it is such a good brand why did Inbev get rid of it so quickly??
Adrian it looks as if you are finding it difficult to accept that you are wrong. We done the research and worked with Tennet’s supplied research and it all says the same thing. Kids don’t like the product. Nobody is arguing that supplying companies are doing a god job and producing great stuff but the truth is that Tennents sell most of their stuff to BOGOF or deals. Under InBev they were in competition with Stella. If they were so good, why oh why did the Leith all these years ago choose to work with Coors??
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We done the research? On Tennets? Well you 'ain't done the spell check. Anon plonker.
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Here's some research:
“Tennent’s bridges the generation gap from father to son, successfully spanning city
centre business and working men’s clubs” - BrandCentrics 2008
Seems about right to me.
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Just been reading this and thought as I was on the Leith board in 2002 and then subsequently went to Newhaven I could shed a little light on why Leith might have chosen Carling and Grolsch (Coors) over Tennent's (Interbrew). Coors income was double that of Tennent's and Carling was the flagship brand of London office. It was not an easy decision emotionally for anybody but rationally hundreds of thousands of pounds sort of focused the mind. I hope that helps why oh why anon at lunchtime today.
Jonathan thanks for that and this is exactly what I was talking about it is a small brand If people had understood the original post properly they would realise no one was bitching or bad mouthing anyone. And no we did not lose any pitch to anyone. It is a small brand that has a limited market – which is diminishing; there is nothing wrong with the advertising or the creative. All that is wrong is the product and the only reason it sells is because it is cheap these are the facts so please get the facts right!!!!!
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I don't think Tennent's is a small brand in volume or outlook. The fact it is where it is irritates a lot of people who think as a Scottish standard ABV lager it should not have achieved what it has. And I can assure after working with the brand team for a long time Tennent's sells for more reasons than just price.
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Awesome, even iconic brand. Terrible product. Scotland's favourite lager? Certainly not mine. Interested to see the direction in which the new owners take the brand!
Anon - "does anyone know of any young people that drink Tennents out with T in the Park?"
Some say Tish - others would say Fipsy. Kids love that stuff - I have a fridge full of it - Im 22.
Dear Anon (Fri 28 Aug 2009 16:27)
- 55% Market Share in the (still profitable) On Trade, where lager brands don't compete on price in the way they do in the Off Trade
- 30% Market Share in the Off Trade, a pure, free market where people have an unlimited choice of brands to pick from
- A fantastic distribution network to supply draught products to the On Trade. previously unavailable to Magners
- An existing sales force who know Scotland and Northern Ireland inside out
If I were Magners, I would have jumped at the opportunity too.
InBev will be sad to see Tennent's and the profit it brings go, I'm sure.
Anyone who knows anything about InBev's (over-priced) purchase of Anheuser Busch in 2008 will know that InBev is having to get rid of some prized assets (brands like Tennent's) to help account for the inflated price they paid for AB and the subsequent stock market crash.
Anon Fri 28 Aug 2009 16:27. It might be worth reading up a bit before mouthing off:
Here are a few starters for you:
http://www.domain-b.com/industry/Alcohol/20090306_AB_InBev.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7925437.stm
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I think the post anon button should be scrapped. Why must people post anonymously anyway? Get it together DRUM if people want to have an opinion then they should be willing to stand behind it or not say anything at all. You are giving people with either no knowledge or courage the opportunity to speak in a place where only adults should be allowed.
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Greig, you're right about the Post Anonymously option. I used to buy the argument that it allowed people to make (very) candid (if considered) comments on things appearing in the Drum. Some things just need to be criticized, and with some vigour. Trouble is that's not what it gets used for. I wonder if they are listening?
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