Is Beer Rationed?

... a familiar cry to those pub-goers who are slow volunteering to buy their round - but it may have some substance, according to specialist drinks researchers RHMR, who found that the UK's brand owners and retailers almost certainly lost sales and profit as a result of stock shortages on the shelves of multiple grocers at Christmas.

Midlands-based research consultancy RHMR made visits to the bottled ale fixture in over 40 stores during December, checking out facings, stock levels and promotions in branches of multiple grocers. In some outlets, bottled ale brands had an average of just 1.7 facings each, with many having just one facing. Little surprise, therefore, that an average of two brands per outlet were out of stock, and only a third of outlets had no out of stock at all. Low stock levels also presented a problem, with 80% of outlets having at least one brand with 1-6 bottles.

Researcher Richard Horswell commented 'This survey suggests that, while monitoring out of stock is very important to brand owners, this is only half the story. There was widespread evidence of low stock levels too, especially where brands were on promotion. Can brand owners afford not to know what is happening at the fixture?' Horswell believes that the principles applied to this survey could almost certainly be applied to many other markets.

A free copy of the report summary is available from Richard Horswell on info@rhmr.co.uk

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas unless otherwise stated.

• RHMR
• All news
• MrWeb info