Selling Craft Beer and SIBA Beer-X

Last week I was in Liverpool for a couple of days at SIBA Beer-X. This event is the annual AGM of the Society of Independent Brewers with a trade show and beer festival all wrapped up into one building over 5 days. The Society of Independent Brewers started life as the Small and Independent Brewers Association (hence the superfluous 'A' at the end of their current acronym). The organisation is going through some growing pains at present as the Directors and Board attempt to expand and encompass some larger Independent brewers up to 1% of the UK market as a maximum size, whilst many of the members want to revert to the original purpose of representing the smallest commercial brewers in the UK and making changes to the Commercial division to reflect that.

As I've written previously, the UK market situation is more challenging perhaps than that enjoyed by the BA (Brewers Association) in the US, with a variety of not just Independent brewers but also larger regional and family brewers who tend to have a significantly larger capacity than many of the new 'Craft' brewers, and of course the ongoing friction between 'Craft' beer and the more traditional Cask Ale faction with the equally conflicted CAMRA consumers organisation as their cheerleaders.

The focus of many of the seminar sessions and debates seemed to be about how the membership could make the transition into being 'trendy craft beer' which seems odd to some extent given that many of us present already operate in that environment and many of the remainder simply don't understand (or indeed want to understand) what makes that sector of the market work as can be illustrated by some of the horrific attempts to rebrand or sub-brand to engage with it.

I listened to two of the more impressive speakers talking about 'the market' and sales diversification, and it seems to me that many of the things being suggested for brewers to create new markets for their products where very similar to the things that I've been doing for a long time (to the extent of name checking one of my restaurant customers as a progressive business to watch) and talking in very similar terms to those that I have been using for a long while about addressing the Female market and Export opportunities.

The main thing to take away though, both from the seminars and from my own experience, is that far too many brewers are still aiming all of their efforts at Pubs and what is generally termed as 'vertical drinking' or less euphemistically Men standing at the bar drinking Pints. There is nothing wrong with that in many ways, but it's a contracting market that some parts of the industry are determined to make even less inclusive by continuing to support the use of sexist branding. The amount of beer being sold by this route is getting smaller year on year, so you need to broaden your approach.

Things that should be obvious to most businesses seem to be alien to much of the beer industry unfortunately, making a product that the consumer wants to purchase rather than is constrained to through lack of choice, attractive branding that engages and excites, and getting your product into the hands of the consumer in a place and environment that they are comfortable in, all failed by many whose singular point of reference is what they and people like them enjoy.

It's not all bad news, I had the pleasure of spending time with some great people, and drank some very good beers, and will be helping some great brewers get to the consumer more efficiently online as well as learning more. Every day is a school day.

Hopefully it has also inspired me to write a little more about the business of selling craft beer, and I'll return to address some of these issues more thoroughly soon.