BIG INTERVIEW
VENERABLE CIDER COMPANY MOVES WITH THE TIMES BY HELEN COMPSON
Rooted in the soil of Herefordshire for five generations now, multi-award winning Westons Cider yet proved fleet of foot in adapting to the exigencies of the pandemic.
Within weeks of its descent, the management team had ramped up the online business 20 fold, all the while adjusting the nature of the stock they held. Darryl Hinksman, Head of Business Development, said: “It’s been quite remarkable. From March last year, since we first went into lockdown, we met as a leadership team every day for the first hundred days.
Australia, looking after the company’s antipodean brewery, when Covid-19 began to emerge. “I flew out of Melbourne just as it went into lockdown and I got back saying ‘we are going to follow suit’,” he said. “There was an almost instant recognition that business had to change and we pretty much got on with it.” In a sure indication the team did indeed find the sweet-spot for consumers suddenly house-bound, Westons’ online turnover of yesteryear, somewhere in the region of £50,000 to £100,000 per annum, has become £1.5m. It also has 70,000 followers too, people who haven’t just clicked on ‘like’ but have also given permission for Westons to contact them with offers.
“We made a lot of changes! We worked through the whole process, from the production line to the focus of our stock-keeping.”
While the online takings are small beer in the scale of things – the business as a whole has an annual turnover of £60m – the team recognises the shift forced on consumer trends in the past year is here to stay.
Westons was forewarned and as a result, forearmed, when Darryl got a taste of things to come in early 2020. He was in
“OK, yes, the on-trade business is coming back pretty swiftly as pubs and restaurants reopen,” said Darryl. “The recent spurt
We made a lot of changes! We worked through the whole process, from the production line to the focus of our stock-keeping.
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of good weather has certainly helped there and each time there is a lifting of restrictions, we see a bit of an uplift. “But with the way the online orders are flowing in, they will soon account for 2.5% of our overall turnover. “Our best guess is that while people are returning to pubs and restaurants, they will probably go out less often, but will expect a premium offer when they do. For us that means they will drink less, but choose the best.” The nature and ratios of stock held have inevitably changed in line with customer demand and, in turn, the type of packaging needed. Lockdown’s root and branch reform saw the rise of the mail-order friendly bag-in-a-box and the (temporary) demise of the keg. “The bag-in-a-box range goes from three litres to 20 litres and they are best sellers, especially the 10 and 20 litre sizes,” he said. “People buy them – they’re only available online, not in supermarkets
July/August 2021
