Bulmers to be re-branded as Magners in Ireland (allegedly)

The Hill Billy

I saw this thread & it prompted me to share some bad news...

According to my reputable industry sources - in the near future Bulmers will be no more as it will be undergoing a re-branding in Ireland as Magners (allegedly).

Should we campaign for it to stay as Bulmers?
As long as it is orange, carbonated, chilled & alcoholic - are we too pìssed to really care?



"If it ain't broke - don't fix it!"

mikemac

It was only a matter of time-I'm amazed it wasn't done before.
It's crazy from a marketing point of view to be promoting two brand names.

Only way around this to for C&C to take over that English company who own the rights to the Bulmers name

Meh, I don't care and Irish people will adapt.

rubadub

I think this has been on the cards for about 10 years now, I heard their share price dropped 15% due to the bad weather and hence lack of people drinking it.

gucci

it will be easier to just re-brand it here rather than worldwide. im sure people will feel nostalgic about the bulmers name in ireland, but the fact is that the company bought that name to promote theyre product, so its same sorta thing thats coming back to haunt them....anyone thinking of buying a few shares?

noby

I heard their share price dropped 15% due to the bad weather and hence lack of people drinking it.

Back in April/May they couldn't produce it quick enough when there was a heatwave in England, and I seem to recall it being sunny here. Swings and roundabouts I guess.

gurramok

Are you sure Hill Billy?

I just emailed my contact who works in C&C(though I.T. part) and its denial all around!
They think its just Tesco thats getting around the cider name restriction to sell the cider on the cheap to make their profit hence alot of aggro over it!

Nick_oliveri

Ahh me first 4 cans of magners, remember it like it was yesterday. Dose of the scuts and a sicky fest. Dunno what they put in it.

gucci

i know last summer (2006) tesco in england turned down the chance to stock magners, figuring it wouldnt sell, then when it took off in england they went back to blmers/magners asking them for X amount of stock but they were alredy over producing so couldnt give them any. so who knows what way relations are between the companys

The Hill Billy

gurramok wrote:

Are you sure Hill Billy?

I just emailed my contact who works in C&C(though I.T. part) and its denial all around!

I can't be sure. Hence the "Allegedly" in the thread title.
I'm just passing on what my source told me.

Saruman

Its possible.. i have noticed the advertising over here seems to be advertising more and more that they are the same product. I believe there is even a billboard that has on one side a bottle of Bulmers for home and beside it a bottle of Magners for away

The problem though with getting rid of the Bulmers name here is that unless they keep the Bulmers trademark it means the British company can bring bulmers over here

To be honest, the English company had the name Bulmers long before the clonmel plant started producing Cider.

It was strange to be in the UK in May/June and see all the Londoners drinking Magners. I was drinking strongbow as it was on tap and cheaper

gucci

Saruman wrote:

The problem though with getting rid of the Bulmers name here is that unless they keep the Bulmers trademark it means the British company can bring bulmers over here

does that mean they cant sell brittish bulmers in ireland? i have seen two pubs stocking it, are they just chancing theyre arm because they're getting it cheaper somewhere else??

Jimoslimos

Saruman wrote:

Its possible.. i have noticed the advertising over here seems to be advertising more and more that they are the same product. I believe there is even a billboard that has on one side a bottle of Bulmers for home and beside it a bottle of Magners for away

I think that might be an effort to dissuade their Irish customers (when travelling abroad) from "mistakenly" purchasing Bulmers. The two (in the UK anyway) actually have very similar branding

Saruman wrote:

The problem though with getting rid of the Bulmers name here is that unless they keep the Bulmers trademark it means the British company can bring bulmers over here

Don't think that would be a problem - Bulmers(UK) hadn't been sold for years and was only recently reintroduced to piggyback on Magners success.

manc

gurramok wrote:

Are you sure Hill Billy?

I just emailed my contact who works in C&C(though I.T. part) and its denial all around!
They think its just Tesco thats getting around the cider name restriction to sell the cider on the cheap to make their profit hence alot of aggro over it!

It seems Tesco/Superquinn (i didn't do the shopping myself so not sure which) are currently selling large bottles of Magners but still cans/litre bottles of Bulmers as they are in my fridge


I presumed they were just rebranding Bulmers in Ireland, from a company point it makes sense I suppose and it was founded by William Magners.

Frankiestylee

Bulmers in England is a bit cheeky... I've been in a few "Irish" pubs where they've been selling the English Bulmers and kinda hoping in an Irish pub people will go for it as it is back home, but no, differant stuff altogether

gucci

it may look a bit cheeky considering they have rebranded it because of the success of the irish bulmers, but magners bought the bulmers name from ireland only off the british bulmers company (think its scottish and newcastle that now own it and the worldwide naming rights to bulmers - might be wrong!) to sort of use theyre name to make their product more successful and glamorous in ireland, why they just didnt go with magners i dont know!!
but now many years later that naming issue is causing confusion! would the bulmers brand have been as succesful in ireland without the bulmers name? in hindsight i presume it would!

Uuuh Patsy

Bring back the Marathon whilst your at it:)

sunny2004

IIIIiiiii havvvveeeee doooooneeeeeeeeee exteeeensive marrket researrch ffor thiss threaddddd uppppppppsss whos roooound iss itt

i71jskz5xu42pb

manc wrote:

It seems Tesco/Superquinn (i didn't do the shopping myself so not sure which) are currently selling large bottles of Magners but still cans/litre bottles of Bulmers as they are in my fridge

Yeah, I've seen the Magners bottles in Tesco Clearwater recently. They were on special so I assumed they had arrived by mistake.

A rose by any other name .....

happy_acid_face

Bulmers is called Magners outside of the Republic of Ireland because Bulmers Ltd. don't own the trade mark for Bulmers outside of the Republic.
The Magners brand name was developed by Bulmers Ltd. in 1999 when the company decided to apply its successful home market to number of export markets.

As for Tesco's selling Magners, although it's not unlikely for Bulmers to change totally to Magners, I'd say the most realistic truth is Tesco's are making more money buying it in the UK than in Ireland....

The following is a senario that I think might have happened. I'm not saying it did!
Magner's produces vast amounts of cider to cope with estimated summer demand following the seriously hot April/May... Then it rains instead. Magners sell mass amounts off cider to tesco's at discounted rate. Tesco's sell this huge amount of cider bought in, in all it's stores, UK and Ireland, to prevent it going out of date. Magners ends up in the Republic of Ireland...

gurramok

happy_acid_face wrote:

The following is a senario that I think might have happened. I'm not saying it did!
Magner's produces vast amounts of cider to cope with estimated summer demand following the seriously hot April/May... Then it rains instead. Magners sell mass amounts off cider to tesco's at discounted rate. Tesco's sell this huge amount of cider bought in, in all it's stores, UK and Ireland, to prevent it going out of date. Magners ends up in the Republic of Ireland...

I think you maybe be onto something there.

C&C did release a sales forecast recently saying that sales will be flat in both countries due to the bad weather and yet their forecast months ago was a huge jump so they ramped up production then.

So there maybe excess there to be off-loaded, wouldn't ya think the price would come down to reflect the over-supply?