Stella is the leading draught premium lager in the UK, accounting for around one in two pints of premium lager sold in Britain, but substantial marketing expenditure promoting the bottled version is also beginning to pay dividends, according to Colin Pedrick, managing director of on-trade sales at Interbrew UK.
" Interbrew UK is supporting the brand with a record spend of £38 million during 2004 - including £26 million of media support - which has helped Stella Artois to rise up the PPL rankings. Brand support includes heavyweight advertising support, continued film sponsorship of Channel 4 and a range of film-linked activity.
"Despite its success, there is still a tremendous opportunity to build the scale of the brand in the PPL sector. Stella Artois is stocked by little more than three in ten on-trade outlets compared with the number one PPL brand which is stocked by nine out of ten outlets.
"We are working to drive distribution of Stella Artois by making more retailers aware of the profit opportunity it represents," he said.
Budweiser is the UK's biggest selling PPL brand, while Beck's - owned by Interbrew UK's parent company InBev but distributed by Scottish and Newcastle in the British market - is number two.
Pedrick added: "We are also encouraging more outlets to stock both draught and packaged Stella Artois because this makes commercial sense for retailers given the success of both formats. Such a strategy has been proven to increase total Stella Artois business: research in independent free trade outlets stocking both variants showed that draught rate-of-sale increases significantly."
This is because consumers tend to see bottled and draught beer as relevant for two quite distinct drinking occasions, and so there is a need for retailers to cater for both. Furthermore, stocking the bottled variant has an impact on brand visibility and display opportunities which help drive sales of both variants in outlet, Pedrick said.