A Head in the Sand – CEO of VFI not much of a fan of Craft Beer

I listened with obvious interest to the Matt Cooper interview with John McKenna, co-author of the Bridgestone Guides 2012 for Best Restaurants to eat in, and Best Hotels to stay in, on Today FM last week. John strongly commented on the growth in popularity of craft beers, both as an accompaniment to good food and as standalone drink product. Indeed , he went so far as to say that matching great food with craft beers , would be the big trend for 2012. John also made the obvious point that pubs need to move into selling craft beer and Irish craft beer rather than just the same bland relatively tasteless beers if they want to survive as this is what consumers are now looking for. He used an excellent McDonalds analogy when describing the current beer offering in the majority of Irish pubs, i.e. it is the same menu in every location, with virtually no differentiation. I could not agree more.

We then had the view of Padraig Cribben, head of the VFI, representing 5000 licenced On Trade premises in Ireland. I found his views on craft beer totally out of sync with reality. I suspect the pubs that have opened in recent years, specialising in craft beer would also be inclined to disagree with the VFI view. Here in Fourcorners, we have seen a double digit growth in our craft beer sales last year, and this trend has continued into January 2012. In spite of the fact that craft beer is the fastest growing sector of the drinks industry in Ireland and internationally, Mr. Cribben said that craft beer was not the way to go for his members to halt the decline in their business or even grow them or dare I say, to provide the product that more and more people are looking for. Mr Cribben insisted that pub customers do not want a craft beer but instead, were only interested in being able to purchase old staples, that all the pubs have served for the past 30 years and that they know and love. With this approach we are doomed to be still drinking the same bland beer in our pubs for eternity, despite our taste buds having become more sophisticated or put more simply, re-awakened. He went further to suggest pubs should be sticking to internationally owned brands such as Carlsberg, Budweiser etc rather than stocking beers from the indigenous Irish craft brewers. Amazing!

So I would hope that anyone who reads this blog and agrees, might start to ask their own local pub if they are going to start stocking some craft beer!

User Comments