Drowning their sorrows
For homesick Polish immigrant workers SABMiller is bringing its Polish beer brands into London.
They work in cafés, in hotels, on building sites. Most of them are young and quite well-educated. What they lack in language skills they make up for in diligence.
Poles are about to turn London into their capital away from home. When the European Union accepted ten more member states in May 2004, it was only the UK, Ireland and Sweden who opened up their working market for migrants from eastern Europe. Since then, according to official figures, more than half a million eastern Europeans have come to the UK. The Polish alone have been given 360,000 work permits by the British Home Office. To add to this, independent contractors have also come who don’t need a work permit as well as black market workers who don’t even attempt to get any legal work documents.
Heavens know where they all find a place to live in super-expensive London, but experts estimate that the real number of Poles in the UK already reaches up to one million people.
No wonder SABMiller announced in May that sales of its Polish beer brands, Tyskie and Lech, are soaring in the UK. Poles just seem to hanker after things they know and love best, especially their beer.
Launched in the UK two years ago, sales of Tyskie have risen by 333 percent in SABMiller’s second half (six months to March 2007) against the comparable period last year. According to a corporate statement, Tyskie and Lech now sell over 100,000 hl or 17.6 million pints in the UK and Ireland. This is against a flat lager market in the UK.
Because of Tyskie’s UK success, SABMiller has decided to make the most of this back home in Poland. A high profile print and broadcast campaign has been launched in Poland, which highlights this Polish export phenomenon. Also Tyskie delivery lorries travelling across the country now carry the Union Jack together with; “Deliveries to London Daily” written in English to advertise its new status as an export brand.
Alan Clark, Managing Director for SABMiller Europe commented: “Tyskie is the leading beer brand in Poland and the Poles’ loyalty to it is leading to rising sales outside the country.”
Tyskie and Lech are brewed by SABMiller’s Polish subsidiary, Kompania Piwowarska. They are marketed and distributed in the UK by Miller Brands UK and can be purchased from pub chains such as Wetherspoons, Enterprise, Laurel and Greene King in addition to well known retailers Thresher, Oddbins, Asda, Sainsbury’s and Tesco.
