After eighteen years at the top, it seems that Carlsberg has overtaken Stella as Britain's best selling lager. It isn't by much, but it shows the Stella brand to be sliding even further. Stella's sales were down 3% while Carlsberg rose by 11%. Price it seems is part of the issue. Stella is reassuringly expensive at around £1.06 a pint in the off trade, while Carlsberg can be had for a mere 85p.Of course these are different beasts, having only their awfulness in common, but it is still a significant blow to the ailing brand.
Who cares? Not me, but I bring this to you as a public service!
4 comments:
Hello
I’m Claire Haigh and I work with Stella Artois. I thought I’d leave a comment to let you know that Stella Artois is still the UK's favourite lager despite some spurious claims to the contrary by Carlsberg.
I appreciate it may not be your favourite lager but according to latest independent industry figures Stella Artois remains the UK’s best selling premium lager – selling three times more than its equivalent Carlsberg Export. It’s a good try from Carlsberg but we wouldn’t want to see the UK’s lager lovers hoodwinked.
The latest AC Nielsen Survey shows that like for like, Stella Artois actually exceeds the sales of Carlsberg Export three times over with 16.9% of volume share compared to Carlsberg Export at 4.9%.
Thanks for your interest in Stella Artois.
Claire
This was a tongue in cheek piece from me. I am sure (as you hint) that Carlsberg has lumped in sales of their awful lager with their dreadful Export in order to knock you off your perch. Of course they have no need to do so, as I am sure Stella is capable of maintaining any slump without their help.
It's good to see that my blog is read in such lofty places as InBev Towers. Keep reading!
Seriously, thanks for looking and for replying.
Claire's response just show how touchy Inbev are these days (remember their petulant respons ewhen they were delisted by Youngs?). I think they protest too much but then what can you expect from those owning a brand (I won't dignify it with any other description) in steep decline?
Quite frightening really. I have an MI5 image of people sat round monitoring the internet for attacks on Stella. I, too, suspect Carlsberg of being economical with the truth, but does it really matter? Like it not, Stella is a brand in decline.
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