By Deborah Jackson, editor National Liquor News
Westons World Brands has released two new cider brands into the Australian market in line with a trend towards more craft and artisanal products.
The new brands are Stowford Press Medium Sweet and Caple Road No3, which join Westons World Brands’ other brands of Henry Westons and Old Rosie Scrumpy.
According to Cider Australia, the Australian cider market is set to outperform any other alcohol category and forecast to grow to a retail value of $2.6 billion by 2020.
Underpinning that growth is an increasing consumer interest in authentic cider made with real apples and pears; a movement, which sees Australian consumers trading up to premium, craft and artisanal products.
Locally, Australian cider producers are innovating and developing production techniques, while the choice of international ciders in Australia has broadened.
Ian Cameron, the Head of Marketing and Sales at Westons World Brands, told National Liquor News that Caple Road and Stowford Press both fit into Australian consumers’ preference towards more crafted ciders.
“Stowford Press Medium Sweet was developed specifically for the Australian market by our Head Cider Maker Guy Lawrence. And Caple Road is a very unique SKU in that it is an English craft cider that is fresh juice based and actually formulated into an aluminium can, which is a world first,” explained Cameron.
“To optimally produce a cider from a fresh pressed juice base and put it into an aluminium can is extremely hard to do because it is very corrosive, so what Guy Lawrence from Westons has done is come up with a very unique proprietary means of blending that cider but more importantly making it stable enough to be able to package into aluminium cans and then be sold in that format. So they are really unique, but going exceptionally well.”