Following up on earlier stories, the New Brunswick Liquor Corporation - a branch of government - has apparently been successful in its drive to dumb down the local beer market while maintaining its own inflated profit margins through the introduction of what is laughably called a "discount" beer costing $18.67 a 12 pack as reported by the Daily Gleaner:
NB Liquor spokeswoman Nora Lacey said Thursday 138,000 litres of Selection beer was sold provincewide between its launch March 12 and April 15. She said domestic beer sales were up 2.9 per cent, which reverses a trend of declining beer sales. "That is what we are quite pleased about because part of the rationale for adding a value segment in our domestic beer category was to help stimulate demand," said Lacey. She said with the arrival of warmer weather and tourist traffic, domestic beer sales will continue to grow. In terms of sales volume of Selection beer - which comes in both lager and light brands - the Prospect Street store was No. 1, with just more than 6,000 litres sold, Lacey said.
Note: both lager and light brands available. Wow - there is a taste test just begging to be held. Aside from the fact that these are likely macro-brews of the highest degree, in Ontario your beer flavoured water needs can be met by paying an additional 53 cents but getting 50% more beer.
Same country. Same market point. So who is getting that extra 45% of the price? And why do New Brunswickers allow themselves to be treated this way?
Comments
Amy - April 18, 2009 12:10 PM
Happy Birthday!
Alan - April 18, 2009 12:50 PM
I blush.
Chris Storey - April 19, 2009 5:51 PM
A lot of people who live in New Brunswick make their own beer.
Timothy Cox - April 22, 2009 1:59 PM
I was dropping in to the Fredericton local micro who had picked up both and also Moosehead light and Alpine varieties. All were of comparable colour, and tasted similar. Bland.
I tend to gouge my eyes out when I see people drink this as it goes against everything I stand for beer.
Beer deserves better acknoledgement and reverence than it currently recieves. I am trying to promote better appreciation of a substance which has deep historical aspects. Slow learners here in N.B. though, most of the imports are bland macro lagers just from different countries. I do enjoy a budvar or a pilsner urquell, but there are many water flavored beer varieties available. I cringe when at a store searching for an ale that will apease my tastes to hear "Dude $2 off Bud Light".
I am in the same demographic as theese "dudes", however I seek flavour in my beer not toonie rebates.
June 12th-13th involves a home brew festival called the big brew if any are interested.
Cooper Krebs - August 3, 2009 11:49 PM
Selection Beer Update
How is our beer doing? If you ask NB Liquor directly, they will not tell you. Try it yourself. E-mail info@anbl.com and ask for a sales update on Selection Beer. There are 4 sources currently available from which a taxpayer from New Brunswick can get information about how well Selection, the beer made by New Brunswickers for New Brunswickers is doing. (NB Liquor fails to mention that Selection is also owned by New Brunswickers)
Note: my comments are bracketed at the end of each bullet
1. A story by Jeff Lansing of 88.9 FM radio in late March that quotes NB Liquor Customer Service Manager, Gary von Richter. In this story we learn the following about Selection beer;
• initial sales results had exceeded expectations.(meaningless statement as NB Liquor never shared their expectations other than to reduce “beer bleed”)
• domestic beer sales were up 8 percent (meaningless and would otherwise be significantly skewed by late March accounting shenanigans)
• Selection had grabbed a 4.4 percent share of the domestic beer market (same comment as above)
This story can be found here:
http://www.news889.com/news/lo.....55603_7828
***interesting fact: If you look up the NB Liquor organizational chart at http://www.gnb.ca you can see that the Customer Service & Retail Operations Dept. has only one person working in the Customer Service section, the above quoted von Richter. This should re-enforce what we already know about how important customers are to NB Liquor. ****
2. A mid-April article by Stephen Llewellyn in the Daily Gleaner that is heavily based on quotes by NB Liquor Spokesperson, Nora Lacey and Moosehead employee, Joel Levesque. In this article we learn the following;
• Selection has sold 138 000 liters in its first month on the market (32 394 cases or average of 275 cases per beer outlet in NB or an average of 9 cases sold per day per outlet)
• Domestic beer sales were up 2.9 percent (this has dropped from 4.4 percent to 2.9 percent in two weeks)
• NB Liquor expects sales of Selection to grow as the warmer months approach.
• The Prospect store in Fredericton sold 6000 liters (1408 cases).
• Selection beer is not stealing market share from other domestic beers. (no proof offered)
• Moosehead is not worried about Selection beer stealing share. (Thanks for the deep insight Joel, but Selection beer sales add to Moosehead share!!!)
This story can be found at Canada East
3. An interview of Dana Clendenning by Charles LeBlanc in early July. In the interview Clendenning says;
• That Selection beer is a Top 20 beer brand in the province (can you name even 10 brands of domestic beer?)
• Has sold about 80 000 cases up to early July. (340 000 liters…that means it took 3 months, 3 good beer months I might add, to sell a little less than what sold in its first month…..talk about sagging sales!)
This interview can be seen on You Tube.
4. A paragraph in the middle of the July 10th news posting by the hard hitting news organization Fox 105 FM in Fredericton. As in the Gleaner article, Nora Lacey is the main source. In this news posting we learned that;
• Selection beer has sold 80 000 cases since its launch in mid-April (340 800 liters)
• Selection has a 2.7 percent share of the domestic beer category. (meaningless stat unless we are given the total domestic liters)
• The 2.7 percent share holds for “beer bleed” regions like Campbellton (2.7 percent of nothing equals nothing. The only sales of domestic beer in “beer bleed” regions are by accident or through force of law..i,e restaurants and bars get inspected Public Safety)
• Overall beer volume is up 2.5 percent from mid-March to early July. (skewed by late March sales…see NB Liquor “Fuzzy accounting” posting on the old blog)
• The contributing factors for the 2.5 percent increase are a. Selection beer launch, b. new flavored beers (I assume she is referring to the new Bud and Moose light Lime pop, I mean beer), c. domestic beer price freeze in April. (the truth is that there was probably no significant increase in sales once the late March sales are factored out)
This article is no longer available on the web or from FOX 105 FM.
Please note the importance of NB Liquor’s fiscal year end which is April 1. This year they granted licensee holders extended terms plus a significant discount in the second half of March. What it meant was “buy it now before year end and pay less for it after year end” This caused an enormous bump in sales at NB Liquor’s year end as hotels, bars and restaurants loaded up with as much booze as they could handle because they received a discount on anything purchased in the last part of March and they were given a long time to pay for it. Most importantly NB Liquor could report the volume of the sales immediately.
Also important to note that the 70+ private agency stores in New Brunswick were certainly encouraged to carry Selection Beer. I estimate that 25% to 30% of the first months Selection beer sales were just shipments to Agency stores, most of which occurred in late March. Shipments to corporate stores are not counted as sales until the public consumer buy it but shipments to Agency stores are counted as sales immediately. Hence the sales curve for Selection beer should look like the Kamikaze slide at Magic Mountain.
All the best Cooper Krebs
Patience, persistence and a good idea are unstoppable.