2022 IS SET TO BE a YEAR OF PROGRESSION.
The Alcohol industry is continually evolving.
Sometimes overnight, sometimes over years. A great example being Gin. From the 1751 William Hogarth illustration: Gin Lane, to the meteoric rise of Gin, consumer demands often dictate what is required of breweries to keep them progressing – cheap and cheerful or premium and special. This ensures the alcohol industry researches great new ways to be innovative.
Indeed, never more so than the past few years has the UK alcohol industry (both on and off trade) changed what and how it does business.
But, just maybe 2022 will be the year we can all make and execute plans.
We certainly are. Hopefully the predicted alcohol trends for 2022 and our changes will go hand in hand.
trends for 2022.
LOW OR NO ABV.
Recent times have seen an increase in consumers become more aware and pro-active when it comes to their health. Making conscientious decisions on what they both eat and drink.
This in turn had an impact across the food and beverage industry. Some in the alcohol industry had already taken small steps towards more health focused products in their ranges pre pandemic.
But then the pandemic hit and the lasting effects will only serve to increase the focus on health and wellbeing.
We saw an uptake in breweries contacting us to bottle/distil lower ABV beer and spirits. The enquiries since have drastically increased. Especially around distilling premium spirits and canning Low ABV Ready To Drink cans.
PREMIUM IS HERE TO STAY.
In keeping with becoming more health conscious, consumers are drinking less but focusing more on a higher quality choice.
Making choices to drink products with premium natural ingredients. Data shows a key trend in the US for premium spirits is the increase in Agave spirits, in particular Tequila. Possibly due to agave being a natural sweetener.
Another reason or impact is yet again the effects of the pandemic. People were forced to stay at home and drink, this saw some replicating and perfecting cocktails seen in closed bars all around the world. They could source spirits online, taking the time to assess which best suited their needs and they were prepared to spend a bit more to sample a ‘premium.’
THE CONTINUED RISE OF ECOMMERCE PURCHASES IN ALCOHOL.
This new trend for purchasing alcohol through an ecommerce store is now as with many other things ‘normal’ for a large percentage of the population.
But an ecommerce store presence is not solely for the big breweries. Everyone can benefit in the future profits and brand awareness an online store brings.
In fact, if you got ahead of the game in lockdown you will have a good lead here. You and your community know each other. You likely have similar values and certainly over the past couple of years will have built up a relationship – which is the golden grail for bigger businesses.
This is where they can struggle, when focusing nationally they can sometimes lose regional or local awareness and trends.
So take advantage of your stage, continue with an ecommerce store and do not lose focus around it.
It is here to stay.
SUSTAINABILITY.
In addition to the pandemic, 2021 also brought us COP26.
As already discussed ecommerce purchases increased hugely. Local businesses saw consumers become aware of, and used to, the high quality locally produced food and drink available on their doorsteps.
Now thanks to the wide range media surrounding COP26 consumers still have sustainability as an important thought process when considering any purchase. They are definitely more actively aware of the impact their carbon footprint has on the environment.
They will step towards or away from brands which do and do not fit their ideals/values.
So it is important that all breweries, however small look to be as sustainable as possible, not for consumers but for the environment. This is simply being kinder and most people have that in their belief system.
CHANGES FOR US.
A. TEAM.
If you have been staying up to date with our Meet the team posts then you will already be aware that recently we have promoted Marc, an excellent and hard working team member to Production Manager, overseeing our contract packaging services.
Another change is the welcoming of two new team members within our production department, with interviews currently taking place for a third!
B. OPERATING HOURS.
The increase in our production team will allow our contract service business to extend our operating hours, creating more slots for our contract bottling and contract canning services. This will then allow us to offer additional contract brewing slots. All the while keeping costs low.
C. PACKAGING.
All of our contract bottling and contract canning finished products are distributed shrink wrapped, this is a decision we came to because we wanted to ensure a high security measure for the alcohol we distribute in addition to implementing a high accident prevention measure against transport mishaps.
However due to the volumes we distribute we are continually researching new ways or new suppliers to make our process more sustainable for the environment.
This has led us to recently changing suppliers. Our new shrink wrap is supplied by a UK company which has received the ISO 14001 Environmental Accreditation. All of their plastic wraps are 100% recyclable, so they can easily be returned back to their original state to be remade into polythene again.
So for those breweries looking to become more environmentally friendly our 100% recyclable shrink wrap is an excellent reason to switch your contract services to us.
