Brand hoping this summer will be pear shaped

ANALYSIS:IT'S ALL going a bit pear shaped at C&C, but for once that's actually a good thing. Having launched an ad campaign for Bulmers Pear under the premise that Irish drinkers might be a bit sceptical about the whole idea, one online spot shows a "pearapist" hypnotising potential drinkers to "embrace the pear" – the group is now pleasantly surprised to have received a positive initial response.

If a Swedish pear cider brand such as Kopparberg can carve its own niche, surely Bulmers Pear can too, even if the pubs are pretty empty these days and the sporting victories eventually dry up.

The last thing C&C will want to do is get carried away. It has been here before: in summer 2006, Magners exploded in the British on-trade, but analysts worried that C&C, once it eventually caught up with demand, was banking on the novelty factor of cider-over-ice for British drinkers to provide permanent returns.

Fast forward to March 2009 and the market for cider in both Britain and Ireland has withered to the extent that the company was forced to destroy €11 million worth of excess apple juice.

Now C&C is hoping summer 2009 will be the summer of the pear.

In Britain, Magners Pear, advertised with the slogan “100 per cent pear, 0 per cent disappointment”, is being marketed as a fun, refreshing tipple and, significantly in the context of eroding off-trade margins, one that resides firmly in the premium over-ice category. Just don’t use the word “fad”.

Things have changed since 2006. C&C has sold its soft drinks and wine distribution businesses and stripped the costs out of what it’s got left.

It has also imported fresh management from Scottish Newcastle, led by chief executive John Dunsmore, who replaced Maurice Pratt late last year.

Yesterday, Dunsmore said C&C would be hanging on to its less seasonal spirits and liqueurs division. If it has a sticky year, “so be it”: reducing C&C’s reliance on good weather for revenues and customer recruitment is essential if shareholders and its remaining employees are to sleep at night.

After “better than normal” weather in the first 10 weeks of its financial year, no one connected with C&C will have failed to spot the British Met Office’s recent declaration that the weather forecast for the months ahead is for sunny and warm weather.