Newcastle Brown Ale has unveiled a new look and localized plan for growth under management of Five Points Trading Company, which is Heineken’s venture in incubating premium global beer brands in the U.S.
Newcastle Brown Ale’s new primary and secondary packaging highlights the gold, blue and orange colors of the brand identity, with an aim to improve visibility on the shelf, on display and in the cold box. Five Points will also reduce the number of SKUs available to focus sales and marketing efforts against the brand’s core retail and on-premise formats.
To coincide with the debut of Newcastle Brown Ale’s new look, production of Newcastle Brown Ale has moved from the John Smith’s Brewery in the U.K. to the Zoeterwoude Brewery in Holland.
“Moving production of Newcastle Brown Ale to Holland makes sense for our distributor partners and our consumers alike,” says Charles (Chas) Littlefield, GM, Five Points Trading Company. “The move allows us to improve service levels including shorter order lead times, faster transportation to the U.S. and fresher product for our consumers. Despite the move, Newcastle Brown Ale fans can rest assured that the original recipe has not changed.”
“Moving will also now allow us to ship Newcastle Brown Ale from Heineken demand points, enabling distributors to order by the pallet versus by container,” Littlefield adds. “This means Newcastle Brown Ale orders can be combined with other demand point portfolio products including Heineken, Amstel, Strongbow, Red Stripe, Tiger, Birra Moretti, Murphy’s Irish Stout and Affligem. The result: fresher product available on a more timely basis.”
Under Five Points management, Newcastle Brown Ale’s commercial priorities will shift to a hyper-local focus, concentrating efforts and resources against the greatest local market opportunities where current and high potential Newcastle Brown Ale fans live, the company says.
That means “going back to basics to drive consideration and trial through non-traditional and grassroots platforms,” says Brand Director for Five Points, Amy Tay. “We’re excited to unveil our 2018 programming in the coming months.”
Newcastle Brown Ale, 4.7% ABV, is available in 6-, 12-, and 24- 12-oz. bottle packs and on-premise, 20-L BrewLock keg and 50-L standard keg.
