Cooler draught sweeps drinkers in

Nish Gupta pours an extra cold beer at the Waterfront Bar. Picture / Richard Robinson

The stagnant draught-beer market has been given a jump start with DB Breweries' super-chilled tap version of Export Gold.

Available in more than 100 bars nationally, Export Gold Extra Cold is the same beer as its namesake but served at 0C through a specially designed tap.

And punters seem to like that extra chill, with year-on-year tap sales of Export Gold jumping 7 per cent since the concept got under way in November. DB has also seen an average 4 per cent increase in sales across the mainstream beer category. Beer producers classify local brands such as Export Gold or Lion Red as mainstream or non-premium beer.

In licensed premises, the traditional tap category has been losing market share to premium bottled beer, spirits and wine for at least five years.

DB is working at changing that.

"We are trying to stimulate interest in mainstream tap beer," said Mark Davidson, marketing manager for DB.

"We see this initiative as bringing some excitement to a fairly staid and conservative category."

Although DB claims it is the first company to bring the super-chilled concept to market here, extra-cold versions of well-known global brands such as Carling, Carlsberg and Guinness have proven extremely successful in Britain.

The extra-cold concept was first trialled in Britain in 2002 by the producers of Carling, owned by the Molson Coors Brewing. Super-chilled brands are now sold in more than 37,000 British outlets.

Andrew Clapham, owner of the Celsius bar in Auckland, reckons Kiwis are gulping down the new brand at a rate of three to one compared with other beer brands on tap.

The Export Gold concept bar, which stocks only DB beer products, was the first bar in the country to test-market the product last August. Based on its success at Celsius, Export Gold Extra Cold was rolled out across the country.

"People who wouldn't ordinarily have a beer are having one to try it," said Clapham.

"So we're getting growth in the tap-beer category, which for me is important because I have a contract with a brewery which means I have to sell beer. It's picking my volume up in a category that for a number of years has been static."

Nearly all the bars that stock the new brand also sell regular Export Gold on tap.

Davidson admitted there was a risk that the super-chilled version could cannibalise sales of regular Export, but the signs of net growth were promising.

Peter Kean, managing director of Lion Nathan New Zealand, said that although he was not trying to knock DB's new concept, Kiwis and Australians tended to drink their beer at much colder temperatures than the British.

"Extra cold is quite innovative in the UK because it is a colder beer than what they [the British] are used to. It's interesting that extra cold hasn't taken off in Australia yet."

While not marketed as super-chilled, Lion Nathan had been selling Guinness on tap at about 0C here for some time now.

Lion Nathan has a distribution agreement to sell regular Guinness in New Zealand and Guinness Draught Extra Cold has sold well overseas, significantly boosting consumption of the nearly 50-year-old brand.

DB, which pays for and supplies the specialty taps and cooling systems to bars, plans to have its extra cold brand in more than 200 bars this year.