Top Ten online news stories for the quarter by Alana House

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Top 10 in under 10 minutes

HERE’S A ROUND-UP OF THE LATEST NEWS STORIES TRENDING ONLINE. VISIT WWW.DRINKSTRADE.COM.AU FOR DAILY DRINKS INDUSTRY UPDATES.

Words Alana House

1. CORONA BEER VIRUS TRENDS ON GOOGLE

Google Trends revealed a spike in searches for “Corona beer virus” during January.

The deadly virus has nothing to do with Mexican alcoholic beverages and is suspected to have originated from a seafood market in Wuhan, China.

However, Independent PR agency 5W Public Relations released findings of a survey that showed “16% of beer drinking Americans were confused about whether Corona beer is related to the coronavirus.”

Constellation Brands dismissed reports that the brand is suffering during the coronavirus crisis, saying Corona sales are up 5%.

YouGov data also revealed that positive buzz around Corona has increased in Australia.

Laura Robbie, YouGov’s Aussie General Manager, told B&T: “We haven’t seen any negative impact on the Australian data for Corona as yet. At the moment, it seems that Australian consumers do not talk about Corona as a beer in a negative way. Instead, consumers have recently become more aware of Corona as a brand.”

2. AUSTRALIA’S MOST VALUABLE DRINKS BRAND

XXXX blitzed the 2020 Brand Finance Australia 100 report, debuting at No.32, making it Australia’s most valuable drinks brand.

The annual report reveals the most valuable and strongest Australian brands, while also evaluating the relative strength of the brands based on factors such as marketing investment, familiarity, loyalty, staff satisfaction and corporate reputation.

“XXXX has performed well across a number of brand equity attributes,” said Mark Crowe, Managing Director, Brand Finance Australia.

“It has high ‘brand loyalty’ and ‘value for money’ scores. It is performing very well across a number of customer metrics from familiarity to satisfaction. This has fuelled a very solid 7% growth in brand value, making it also the strongest brand in its category and, with a ranking of 32nd, the only beer in the Australia 100.”

3. KRAKEN RTD RANGE RELEASED IN AUSTRALIA

The Kraken Black Spiced Rum has released two premium Kraken RTD varieties in the Australian market – The Kraken & Cola and The Kraken & Dry.

Australia is the first market in the world to introduce the Kraken RTD products, with Proximo saying the release was “in response to strong consumer demand”.

The Kraken & Cola and The Kraken & Dry both come in a distinctive 330ml glass bottle, with the premix made in Australia and specially formulated for the Australian palate.

4. ENDEAVOUR GROUP PREDICTS SUBDUED DRINKS MARKET

Endeavour Group announced in February that total sales growth was 4.7% in HY20 in what the company has described as a “subdued” drinks market.

CEO Brad Banducci said: “Trading in Q2 was impacted by subdued market conditions and competitor promotional activity, particularly over the Christmas and New Year period. “

Sales were also impacted by bushfires across many parts of NSW and Victoria in December.

“The trading environment in drinks is likely to remain subdued in the shortterm; however, as the market continues to premiumise, there are areas of potential growth (craft, eCommerce) that we need to continue to capitalise on,” Banducci concluded.

5. DOUBLE DIGIT GROWTH AND A NEW BEER DIRECTOR FOR AMATIL ALCOHOL & COFFEE

Coca-Cola Amatil’s Alcohol & Coffee division is celebrating its fifth successive year of double-digit EBIT growth in 2019.

The result was led by a strong performance in spirits and RTDs, driven by Canadian Club and innovations such as Koyomi premix and Roku Gin.

The company has also hired a new Beer & Cider Director, Ben Slocombe. Slocombe was Marketing Director of Lion Beer until

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December 2017 and has more recently been Marketing Director of Blackmores.

“It’s fantastic to have someone with his experience to help grow our beer and cider category,” Tobias Hoogewerff, Sales Director Licensed, said.

6. ARCHIE ROSE TO CREATE SPIRITS WITH SMOKE TAINTED GRAPES

Archie Rose Distilling Co is collaborating with Tulloch Wines and First Creek Wines to trial a new spirit made using smoke tainted grapes.

Following the recent tough vintage in the Hunter Valley, up to 80% of fruit has been written off due to smoke taint from nearby bushfires.

Archie Rose Master Distiller Dave Withers said: “We’re really looking forward to seeing how the smoke taint plays into a 2020 brandy and potentially other spirits.”

7. WILL BOOZE PANIC BUYING BE NEXT?

While drinks companies are reporting sales slumps due to the coronavirus, could panic buying turn their fortunes around?

Many Australians have been going to desperate lengths to stock up on toilet paper, but others have been focusing on their wine cellars.

Comments on social media included: “To those who depleted the supermarket shelves of toilet paper and pasta in preparation for the coronavirus – I have all the chocolate and the wine. Your move.”

Another said: “You guys feel free to clean out Costco of toilet paper, I’m heading to Dan Murphy’s to clean out the red aisles.”

Nielsen has been monitoring how the situation will affect e-commerce: “While it’s too soon to detect any meaningful shifts in online purchasing, we do expect online shopping to rise as people become increasingly interested in reducing their exposure to others, as the virus appears to be spread via coughs and sneezes.”

8. BACARDI-MARTINI AUSTRALIA ANNOUNCES RESTRUCTURE

Bacardi International has announced changes to its regional structure, with the company dividing North Asia Pacific into two, separating mature markets from emerging.

As a result, Denis Brown, Regional President of North Asia Pacific has left the organisation.

The company noted that BacardiMartini Australia had experienced continued growth for the last five years, which it said was “testament of Denis’ strong leadership and passion to partner with our customers”.

“Denis has overseen the creation of Bacardi-Martini Australia after separating the from the Bacardi Lion joint venture with Lion, in 2016, and growth of Grey Goose and Bombay Sapphire and the turnaround in Bacardi, which has consistently grown volume for the last five years.”

Moving forward, Australia and New Zealand will report to Regional President of Europe Francis Debeuckelaere.

9. BARS UNDER FIRE FOR CORONAVIRUS PROMOTIONS

Venues have faced backlash on social media for their coronavirus promotions.

Fitzgerald’s Irish Bar in Western Australia, posted a Facebook promotion for an event featuring bottles of Corona and free protective face masks.

“There’s been a LOT of talk about Corona and to be honest it’s made us pretty thirsty…” the caption for the promotion read, alongside an image of a Corona beer bottle wearing a face mask.

The original post also featured a line promising that it would be the “sickest night of the year”, but that version has since been deleted.

The post attracted negative attention online, with users commenting “this is too far” and saying it was “disrespectful”. However, others said it was “seriously the best advertising ever!”

It follows a controversial promotion by a bar in New Zealand, which used the coronavirus outbreak to promote a deal on Corona beer alongside the tagline “while the pandemic lasts”.

CEO John Lawrenson told The Spinoff: “I received a phone call from a colleague at Lion Breweries this morning. He said he was concerned about the perception of Lion, as the NZ distributor of Corona, and asked if I would consider taking the post down. He was very polite and explained his concerns logically and so I agreed to change the wording, but said that I would keep running the promotion.”

10. WHAT THE STARS DRANK AT THE OSCARS AFTER-PARTIES

Piper-Heidsieck may have been the highest profile drinks sponsor of the Oscars after party, but the biggest (unintentional) celebrity endorsement on the night was for canned water.

Best Supporting Actor winner Brad Pitt gleefully posed for the cameras as his statue was engraved at the Governor’s Ball, swigging a can of San Benedetto, an Italian mineral water.

More than 8500 glasses of PiperHeidsieck Champagne were served throughout the night, with winners Laura Dern and Taika Waititi both spotted sipping glasses during their award engravings.

Tequila Don Julio was the spirits partner of the Governors Ball, with mixologist Charles Joly prepping more than 12,000 specialty Oscars cocktails for the event.