Batemans gives bottled ales a facelift

Independent family brewer, Batemans, based in Wainfleet, Lincolnshire, has updated the look of its bottle ales.

The move comes as the brewer aims to further connect with, "a more educated breed of supermarket shoppers and boost sales".

Mocha, Triple XB (XXXB), Victory and Combined Harvest have all been given a revamp to bring the beers up to date with modern demand and tastes.

The wavy labels and more traditional typography and images and dark colours have all been replaced with square edges, contemporary lettering, bright colours and bold shapes. While the company branding on the neck of the bottles carries Batemans’ modern new logo.

Managing director, Stuart Bateman, says: "As part of our commitment to innovation we’re brewing new draught beers for the modern palate on a regular basis and we want this to be reflected, not only by the way they taste, but the way they look too.

"We’re constantly keeping tabs on the market. We’ve recognised that the major multi-grocers beer buyers’ focus has now shifted away from offering a wide regional/local choice due mainly to their inflexible store supply infrastructures and store planograms. They’re giving more space to nationally ranged modern craft beer.

Only five years ago, the bottled ale local range mantra came direct from the boardroom however, their focus has now shifted to range simplification. We knew that in order to maximise our sales opportunity in these changing category strategies, we needed to refresh our existing range packaging, which we’ve now done, successfully bringing 145 years’ brewing history firmly into the 21st century."

Stuart adds: “On one hand modern craft beer is growing in popularity and consumers are better educated, but on the other, there’s increased saturation and competition to contend with.  The challenge for us brewers, is getting younger drinker’s attention in the first instance by producing bottled ales that look and taste great. Fortunately, we’ve had almost 150 years’ experience of anticipating and evolving with consumer demand and using our creativity and gritty determination to continue to serve up excellent ales on all levels.

17 October 2019 - Sam Coyne The Drinks Report, editor