29-Jun-2009 By Ewan Turney
WKD producer Beverage Brands has unveiled a major new responsible drinking campaign. The campaign, Look after your mates, is targeted at 18-24...
24-Jun-2009 By Ewan Turney
Beverage Brand's new apple cider, WKD Core, has unveiled its first advertising campaign. The campaign will be led by a national outdoor campaign on...
17-Jun-2009 By Ewan Turney
WKD has unveiled two new campaigns to support the brand this month — on billboards and on radio. A 48-sheet outdoor billboard ad campaign will...
Instant cocktails
11-Jun-2009
From deepest Yorkshire comes the story of Pete the Postman. Having celebrated the end of each shift with the same pint of bitter in his local for...
Tesco boss defends alcohol promotions
03-Jun-2009 By Matt Eley Matt
Ask licensees up and down the country what the biggest issues affecting them are, and you will be hit with a tirade. The beer tie, tax, the smoking...
Comment: Little to lose and lots to gain through supplier initiatives
20-May-2009
The journalist stereotype of the cynical old hack doesn't apply to me.I'm generally upbeat about drinks companies' efforts to drive footfall through...
Spirits training: Cask Marque turns it hand to spirits training
18-May-2009
The obvious product you would associate with trade body Cask Marque is beer, so it's a surprise to find it set to launch a comprehensive staff...
Summer special: How to sell drinks this summer
05-May-2009
One idea that works well in the summer would be to run a drinks festival. With the category booming, what better time to celebrate all things...
A WKD sort of cider
30-Apr-2009
The latest entry to the cider market comes not from a West Country cider farm nor from the power-houses of Magners or Bulmers, but from WKD.That's...
Comment: Poorly prepared pubs still fail to cater for non-drinkers
29-Apr-2009
Finishing the London Marathon on Sunday put an end to months of temperance, and what a relief - pubs are no fun at all for someone off the booze.The...
Comment: Curtain up for theatre in selling drinks
24-Apr-2009
The Brands Report 2009, our annual look at the 200 best-selling drinks brands in the UK, will be hitting doormats around now.Among the dramatic rises...
23-Apr-2009 By Robyn Lewis
Weight-conscious women looking for a lower alcohol tipple are the target of the latest VK Vodka Kick variant set to hit the market. Brand-owner...
'Tesco to announce weekly turnover now hitting £1 billion'
16-Apr-2009 By James Wilmore
Its domination of the British High Street has been absolute in recent years. And this week the Tesco behemouth is set to smash yet through symbolic...
Drinks giants launch new training scheme
02-Apr-2009
The giants of the drinks trade have partnered to launch a major new barstaff training scheme.Coordinated by Cask Marque, companies including Diageo,...
'Traders try to scupper Tesco alcohol plans'
02-Apr-2009
Traders and shoppers have launched a last-ditch attempt to scupper Tesco's plans to move in to Wanstead - by urging the council not to grant the...
Diageo launches margarita mix
01-Apr-2009
Diageo has added its weight to the pre-mix cocktail market with a new Jose Cuervo margarita product.To make a margarita with the mix, barstaff need...
Comment: Drinks that pubs really want
24-Mar-2009
There is a hefty gap between what many drinks producers claim pubs need and what pubs actually want.This was demonstrated by two things last week....
16-Mar-2009 By John Harrington
The 30-second ad in the "Have you got a WKD side" is to air on TV until early May.
Coors launches 'one stop shop' for online ordering
10-Mar-2009
Coors Brewers has launched a new website to provide a "one stop shop" for freetrade customers ordering from the company.Licensees will be able to...
Comment: We're dangerously obsessed with price
09-Mar-2009
The past week has emphasised how dangerously obsessed with price we are.The trade's submissions in the run-up to the Budget are of huge importance,...
05-Mar-2009 By Robyn Lewis
The RTD market is experiencing a shake-up this month as two of the biggest brands announce reformulations. Diageo is lowering the abv of its Smirnoff...
Alcoholic ginger beer launches
23-Feb-2009
Halewood International is targeting the on-trade with the launch of an alcoholic ginger beer that it hopes can capitalise on the over ice drinking...
Comment: What's your drinks offer?
20-Feb-2009
I'm just coming to the end of the trawl of the country's finest pubs that always forms part of the judging for the Publican Awards at this time of...
Diageo introduces new trade terms
17-Feb-2009
Diageo has established a new set of trade terms for licensees, claiming the new deals are part of its drive to make the spirits category more...
Watching the watchdog
16-Feb-2009
THERE IS finally some hope for pubs and drinks companies facing increased crackdowns on how they promote themselves.Mark Hunter, chief executive of...
Opinion: Coming together to deal with the devil
10-Feb-2009
"Try to think as the other person thinks" - Michael Corleone: The Godfather - Part IIThe government is big on dealing with a single message from the...
03-Feb-2009 By MA reporter
Every licensee wants to back a winner. So to help you become a winner, the MA recently compiled a brand new listing of the 50 drinks that made the...
Opinion: The good, bad and ugly of our battle Vs anti-alcohol brigade
26-Jan-2009
A pair of stories broke last week that illustrate the good and the bad in the battle our industry is engaged in against the anti-alcohol brigade.On...
WKD gets romantic
26-Jan-2009
WKD owner Beverage Brands has launched a Valentine's Day promotion for WKD Red, all in its inimitable tongue-in-cheek style.The company has produced...
Opinion: 99p pint won't be around long
20-Jan-2009
The real question that arises from the Wetherspoon's 99p pint story is: what happens if these extreme promotions become the norm? You'll see from...
Constellation restructures
07-Jan-2009
Constellation Europe has announced major changes to its structure, with two senior members of the team appointed to new positions. The UK and...
Untangling the Matthew Clark/ Punch Taverns tie-up
07-Jan-2009
MATTHEW CLARK'S role in supplying UK pubs was already complicated enough before Punch Taverns took a 50 per cent stake in it in mid-2007. Acquired by...
Drinks chief: Don't blame irresponsible drinking on our promotions
06-Jan-2009
Corporate Social responsibility (CSR). The words must ring round the head offices of UK drinks companies like the eerie clanking of the chains of...
'Tesco in probe over 'cut-price' drink offer'
06-Jan-2009
Tesco has been accused of advertising cut price alcohol while failing to ensure that it had enough stock to meet demand and is set to be investigated...
Comment: Queen's speech no concern for responsible licensees
15-Dec-2008
Should the content concerning the drinks industry in the Queen's Speech cause us concern?As debate continues following the Policing and Crime Bill...
New Diageo products to be brand extensions
11-Dec-2008
Diageo Great Britain's managing director of has suggested that new launches from the company are likely to take the form of extensions to existing...
WKD returns to TV screens
03-Dec-2008
RTD brand WKD returns to TV screens nationwide this month with a new advert - its fourth burst of TV advertising this year.The ad, "Warm Up", will...
Opinion: Barrrr, Darling!
01-Dec-2008
The fourth series of Blackadder got great comic mileage out of a character simply because his name was Darling. If only such mirth could be found in...
Get the punters in
28-Nov-2008
Pubs and bars have taken quite a pounding in recent months, as the off trade, and supermarkets in particular, entices customers away from their local...
Opinion: Decide the future of your drinks offer
21-Nov-2008
Speakers at the recent Publican Pub Trade Summit made one consistent point above all - and I believe deciding whether you agree with it is vital to...
Below-cost selling not "immoral", says former Asda chief
12-Nov-2008 By James Wilmore
Business leader and former Asda chief Archie Norman has argued that below-cost selling of alcohol is not "immoral" - but supermarkets should agree to...
Opinion: Why the secrecy, drinks producers?
10-Nov-2008
Am I alone in wishing there wasn't such a need for secrecy among drinks producers? At a time when the pub trade is crying out for a spark of...
Economic downturn provides opportunities
10-Nov-2008
MANY OF us carry out business operations on the basis of 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it'. So, in some respects, recessions can be good for us in...
Can new product innovation arrest declining sales?
30-Oct-2008
Drinks producers need to focus on developing new products in order to target changing consumer demographics among pub goers, according to a new...
22-Oct-2008 By Ewan Turney
Beverage Brands has signed a deal for its WKD brand to sponsor boxer Ricky Hatton's new show on Nuts TV. The show, Ricky Speaks, will feature the...
Global Brands announces new managing director
02-Oct-2008
A number of management changes have been announced at independent drinks company, Global Brands. Steve Perez has relinquished his position as...
RTDs: Global Brands boss sticks to what he's good at
12-Sep-2008
Welcome to the weird world of Global Brands.The company known for its own Ready-To-Drink (RTD) Vodka Kick (VK) range was, this time last year, widely...
RTDs: Cocktail hybrids
12-Sep-2008
A developing sub-sector within RTDs is what Steve Perez, the managing director of Vodka Kick (VK) owner Steve Perez refers to as "hybrid...
RTDs: Survival of the fittest
12-Sep-2008
What is the state of the current RTD market? The volume of RTDs sold in the on-trade in the year to May 2008 was 17 per cent lower than in the...
Drinks giant slams Scottish government
01-Sep-2008
Diageo has slammed plans by the Scottish government to crack down on pubs' alcohol sales and promotions, and proposed an alternative system of...
