Molson enters the cider market
Profit margins in the burgeoning cider segment must be significant or big brewers would not be clamouring to enter this segment. According to media reports in June 2013, Molson, the Canadian arm of brewer Molson Coors, has launched Molson Canadian Cider, following a number of new entrants in Canada, including Labatt’s Alexander Keith’s Original Cider; Brick Brewing’s Seagram Cider; and Carlsberg Canada’s imported Somersby Apple Cider, all of which have already hit stores in 2012.
“The [cider] category is in double-digital growth and, admittedly, beer is not,” Madeline Burch, marketing manager, Molson Canadian, was quoted as saying. In fact, cider sales at certain alcohol retail locations increased 60 percent in 2012. “We felt that now was the time to act,” said Ms Burch.
In 2011, cider volume sales reached nearly 230,000 hl in Canada, or 1 percent of beer sales (23 million hl) according to Euromonitor, a market research company. Forecasts indicate that cider volumes could rise to 290,000 million litres and sales of CAD 226 million (USD 223 million) in 2016.
Molson Canadian Cider is made with Canadian apples and is described as having a “semi-dry taste with a bright apple aroma.” It’s targeted at urban men and women who have a wide repertoire of drink choices and want to change it up, said Burch. “Gone are the days of classifying people as only beer drinkers or only wine drinkers.”
The product is being launched in Ontario and Nova Scotia. Billboard and transit ads feature product shots and the taglines “Deliciously different” and “Change it up.”
