DESPITE Dry January proving popular this year, a Scottish brewery has seen a massive rise in the sales of its beers.
Innis & Gunn enjoyed a 39% uplift in sales across its range of beers in January – thanks to strong performance in UK supermarkets.
SKUTrak sales data from Morrisons, Tesco, Asda, Co-Op and Sainsbury’s showed a significant increase across the brewer’s core range of lager, Original and Inveralmond beers.
Each of the beers have enjoyed individual uplift, which supports the brewer’s overall 39% increase in sales, when compared against the same retailer data from the previous January.
These January supermarket sales figures build on a strong 2020 performance for Innis & Gunn.
The Edinburgh based company saw their beer sales grow 29% across the whole UK off-trade.
Innis & Gunn Lager, Scotland’s largest and most valuable craft beer, was recently awarded Best Lager at the 2020 Scottish Beer Awards.
The premium lager now contributes 73% of all craft lager volume and 84% of all craft lager value growth in Scotland’s off-trade.
January sales of the multi-award-winning Innis & Gunn Original – the brewer’s flagship beer – delivered a double digit (13%) sales boost throughout the month.
Sales of Inveralmond Ossian – brewed by Innis & Gunn in Perth –also enjoyed a significant increase in the month of January.
The firm’s Ossian sales have increased by 53%, compared to same time last year.
Dougal Gunn Sharp, founder of Innis & Gunn, said: “I’d like to thank our fans and our retail partners for their continued support.
“This brilliant January performance is down to our strong relationships with retailers and suppliers, alongside our dedicated colleagues at Innis & Gunn.
“Throughout this challenging time, we’ve worked hard to ensure our supply chain keeps our customers and fans fully supplied with the beer we know they want.
“And we recognise how important this is for people stuck at home.”
He continued: “This strong start to 2021 will help us to build upon some of the trade support work we launched last year.
“Our ‘Remember Pints?’ campaign was dedicated to the on-trade and provided funding to a number of bars and we also supported Hospitality Action, by donating our Christmas party budget to the fund.
“Additionally, we created 24,000 bottles of ‘Scrubs Lager’, our first bottled limited-edition lager with all profits going to The Care Workers’ Charity.
“And we continue our long-term partnership with Meals & More, aiming to end child hunger.
“We’ve seen that during times of lockdown, consumers have wanted to treat themselves to better beer.
“Our position as the UK’s most recommended beer brand continues to strengthen as we grow, demonstrated by these latest sales figures.”
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here