Cask ale outperforms beer market, finds report

27th September 2010, 8:46am

Despite declining total beer sales and continuing pub closures, cask ale outperformed the beer market last year, according to The Cask Report – Britain's National Drink, 2010-2011, published today.

Figures from the report found that cask beer grew 5% by value in 2009 to £1.4 billion, against a 2% decline in the total UK beer market, cask now accounts for 15.2% of total on-trade beer volumes, and 3,000 more pubs have started selling cask ale.

The report also found that cask ale outperformed the total (on- and off-trade) beer market in volume terms: cask volumes were steady, compared to a 4.1% decline overall, regional and local cask ale brewers recorded volume increases of 1% and 5%.

Award-winning writer and author of The Cask Report, Pete Brown, said: "Considering everything else that was happening in the beer market, with continuing pub closures and consumers switching from on-trade to off-trade consumption,  it's hard to view this as anything other than a strong performance from cask ale."

"More interesting than the bald figures are the changing market dynamics and patterns of consumer behaviour. We might be emerging from recession, but we're not jumping back to conspicuous consumption: instead, we've become more thoughtful about our purchases and in our food and drink choices, we're looking for tradition, provenance and wholesomeness – all values that cask ale can provide in spades." 

Related Articles:

• 14 May 2010 - Cask Ale Week drives pub sales
• 29 Mar 2010 - 12 months of growth for Cask Ale

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