SABMiller to launch Kozel in the UK

Once viewed as a poor substitute for its intoxicating rivals, lower strength beers have shrugged off their party-pooper image to become a stellar performer in a declining beer market.

Sales of non- and low-alcohol beers have risen while sales of ordinary beer dipped. The boom in lower-strength beers must have persuaded SABMiller to enter the ring. After all, why should they leave all the action to AB-InBev?

But instead of launching a new label, SABMiller looked around to see if they could find one that fitted the ticket in their already existing portfolio of brands.

Lo and behold, there was Kozel, a Czech lager.

As SABMiller have found out to their surprise Kozel has a cross-border appeal. The brand’s symbol is a goat. In Slavic countries, the goat symbol plays very well and so Kozel has become a roaring success there.

In our globalised times, it did not take SABMiller long to picture a grand future for Kozel in the UK, where goats don’t enjoy such symbolic value. Czech beers do, though. Thanks to Pilsner Urquell having cleared the way, Czech beers stand in high esteem with British consumers. Unfortunately, the supermarkets have already latched onto this trend and put cheap private label beers from the Czech Republic (a typical 500ml bottle costs anywhere from GBP 0.99 to GBP 1.40) on their shelves.

Discount retailer Aldi is selling Staroslav, produced by a Heineken-owned brewery in Krusovice; Asda has Pivovar Herold, which is brewed in Breznice; the Co-op offers a beer called Czech Premium Lager, produced by Staropramen (Starbev) ; while leading supermarket chain Tesco is marketing Boheme 1795, a beer from the town of Ceske Budejovice.

SABMiller has done the only intelligent thing and launched Kozel in the on-premise as a draught beer.