Bulmers Announce 10% reduction on their Pint Bottle of Cider

ronaneire

Has anyone come across the reduction in price of Bulmers Cider (pint bottle)

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2009/0527/1224247501927.html

slayerking

Its about time they reduced their prices.
I don't drink the stuff myself but it's a ridiculous price in a pub. Even with a 10% reduction its still too expensive IMO.

Max Power1

why buy a pint bottle? if i want a pint of bulmers, ill get a pint of draught for roughly 4€, why pay more??

super_furry

Lets hope for 10% less diarrhea from their Pear Cider.

IrishWhiskeyCha

In the report it says 'The price cut is expected to hit C&C’s revenues on Bulmers although this is not expected to be material to the group'

What a load of rubbish, just trying to make us feel sorry for them ... sales of Bulmers have been seriously falling over the last fwe year so they are just trying to entice people to buy again ... so if they sell more by reducing price they will increase over all sales and revenue ... but as people have already said it is still over priced. 6 pack of 33cl magners in an offlicence in the north £3 6 pack of Bulmers here €10.99 bloody disgrace.

What gets me is they will not come out with a decent dry cider ...instead all we get is the sweet crap they flog as Premium cider :mad:

ronaneire

slayerking wrote: »

Its about time they reduced their prices.
I don't drink the stuff myself but it's a ridiculous price in a pub. Even with a 10% reduction its still too expensive IMO.

I totally agree, but publicans would have a lot to do with the price for a pint bottle/

Max Power1 wrote: »

why buy a pint bottle? if i want a pint of bulmers, ill get a pint of draught for roughly 4€, why pay more??

A pint glass with ice and a large bottle, can't beat it. I'd like to know where you are paying €4 a pint?

IrishWhiskeyCha wrote: »

In the report it says 'The price cut is expected to hit C&C’s revenues on Bulmers although this is not expected to be material to the group'

What a load of rubbish, just trying to make us feel sorry for them ... sales of Bulmers have been seriously falling over the last fwe year so they are just trying to entice people to buy again ... so if they sell more by reducing price they will increase over all sales and revenue ... but as people have already said it is still over priced. 6 pack of 33cl magners in an offlicence in the north £3 6 pack of Bulmers here €10.99 bloody disgrace.

What gets me is they will not come out with a decent dry cider ...instead all we get is the sweet crap they flog as Premium cider :mad:

I can't understand it either, with sales of bulmers (magners) in parts of Europe & Austraila there sales have to be up. Different vat rate and excise duties in the UK would be part of the reason for the difference in price.

IMO dry cider is like vinegar.

cuddlycavies

As one involved in the export of Bulmers, I can confirm that sales have been disasterous for two summers now. Pear is going well so far and weather permitting this could be a good year. The introduction of a strong marketing campaign from a scots rival has also knocked things a little in the biggest market(uk) but really its been the weather and maybe a product life cycle which hit it's peak in 2006 and is now in decline. How anyone can drink six pints of the stuff is beyond me.

Davidth88

Ill be interested to see if the LVA , and their merry cartel decide to pass this 10% on.

My guess is they won't.

However in weather like the last week , you really cannot beat a bottle of Bulmers and a pint of ice.

It is horribly sweet on it's own , but the ice takes the edge off it somehow .

ronaneire

cuddlycavies wrote: »

How anyone can drink six pints of the stuff is beyond me.

Easy :pac:

rubadub

Max Power1 wrote: »

why buy a pint bottle? if i want a pint of bulmers, ill get a pint of draught for roughly 4€, why pay more??

The ice as mentioned. This effectively turns it into a "longer" drink, many people I see do it in 2-3pours, it is rare to get a full pint in a pub, bulmers is one more likely too though as it can be poured without a head (used to drive me mad seeing barmen actually tip out a full bulmers and proceed to put a "head" on it that would last 2 seconds, idiots)

Bulmers pricing has always been an odd one. The duty went up a few years back on cider but the real problem has always been that it was available in 330ml & 568ml bottles, this really seems to confuse people. Pubs have always gotten away with utter murder when it comes to longnecks, I brought this up many times before like here.

I have mates who get irate if you tell them how much a longneck costs in pint terms. e.g. a 330ml heineken at €5.50 is €9.46 per pint!

Now traditionally the pubs have always raped people on longnecks, a lot of places charge more for a longneck than a pint. Usually a pint of bulmers is the most expensive pint in pubs who only stock the mainstream bud, heineken etc (not erdinger, budvar etc). So if they follow the normal pricing a pint of bulmers might be €4.80, then their longneck might be €5.00, but then where does this leave the pint bottle? it is 1.72 times more than a longneck so should be €8.60 if priced like a longneck per ml. It really exposes the blatant & bizarrely accepted overpricing of longnecks. It is a real pet hate of mine, like the emperors new clothes.

I have seen people really confused about it and actually try and use this comparison to justify the price, like saying "€6.00 a bottle is really cheap, its almost like 2 longnecks":rolleyes:

Plenty of places charge huge amounts.
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055396230

Paid €6.50 for a pint bottle of bulmers in the Church on Jervis street

6:50 for a pint bottle of bulmers in eamonn dorans.

was in Messrs McGuires and was given a receipt back with my change. Had a look at it and saw that a pint bottle of bulmers on it was €7.90!!!

in some pub in Athlone(can't remember name now) that a pint bottle of Bulmers was €7.90

Capt'n Midnight

Bulmers Announce 10% reduction on their Pint Bottle of Cider

isn't that just a half litre ?

BeerNut

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

isn't that just a half litre ?

Ha ha ha ha! The sly feckers...

lmtduffy

keep in mind bottles are often more per ml than draught because of the cost of storing and sorting of the bottles for recycling.

Capt'n Midnight

lmtduffy wrote: »

keep in mind bottles are often more per ml than draught because of the cost of storing and sorting of the bottles for recycling.

Thanks

I had always wondered why soft drinks always cost far more than alcoholic ones, there was me thinking it had something to do with publicans seriously taking the piss.

lmtduffy

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Thanks

I had always wondered why soft drinks always cost far more than alcoholic ones, there was me thinking it had something to do with publicans seriously taking the piss.

Id say there is an element, as they are complements.

Just consider the nasty that is sorting through bottle skips and the price is slightly more bearable.

toiletduck

I saw the letter they sent out. Laughable really, looking for sympathy and all.

I don't "get" the concept of a pint bottle, is there really that much of a difference between draught and it tastewise?

BeerNut

toiletduck wrote: »

is there really that much of a difference between draught and it tastewise?

As mentioned above, you can serve the bottled version over ice. Making it colder means you don't have to taste it. Another win for people who don't like the taste of drink.

toiletduck

BeerNut wrote: »

As mentioned above, you can serve the bottled version over ice. Making it colder means you don't have to taste it. Another win for people who don't like the taste of drink.

Is that it though?! In a pub I worked in a few years ago, the cider drinkers would usually go for a pint of draught with a side glass full of ice. /recession tip for above mentioned peoples

Mantel

toiletduck wrote: »

I saw the letter they sent out. Laughable really, looking for sympathy and all.

I don't "get" the concept of a pint bottle, is there really that much of a difference between draught and it tastewise?

One reason people prefer is, you know what your getting from a bottle. With draft stuff it can vary from pub to pub depending on their pints. Then there's the pouring your own in to a pint glass with ice, makes you thing there's more of it It just sounds messier with a draft pint and ice on the side.

ronaneire

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Thanks

I had always wondered why soft drinks always cost far more than alcoholic ones, there was me thinking it had something to do with publicans seriously taking the piss.

More then taking the piss I'd say, I paid €2.80 for a spash of coke from a minging syrup machine in a pub on Sunday night, I think it should be classed as extortion. :mad:

BeerNut

ronaneire wrote: »

I paid €2.80 for a spash of coke from a minging syrup machine in a pub on Sunday night

Yikes! Though is it better if it comes from a minging syrup machine on the Naas Road?

IrishWhiskeyCha

lmtduffy wrote: »

keep in mind bottles are often more per ml than draught because of the cost of storing and sorting of the bottles for recycling.

This tirade is not aimed at you lmtduffy

But that is more rubbish from the Vintners trade trying to justify the bull on pricing. We are being totally ripped off and the pub trade is dying on it's feet yet they will not tackle the one reason that people are not going to the pup as often as they did ... pricing :rolleyes: ... idiots ... how can you feel sorry for a trade like that.

I used to work in a night club when I was a lad and 2 people could sort a whole raft of bottles in the bottle yard in an hour. So the extra labour is minimal in the big scheme of things. Soft drink mixers cost pittance and they is at least a 10 fold mark up on them. A vodka & Coke should cost the same as a pint or close to it.

Next put 1 Keg (88pints) beside 4 boxes of stacked beer x 24 bottles (96 beers) . Where is the major space difference, I actually think the keg may take up more space and is much heavier so a bigger effort in moving from yard to keg room. You have to provide fridges for bottles of beer but you have to have a whole spare room (basement) with coolers, gas canisters pipes with draught. Which is easier to manage tell me.

So where is all the extra work coming from ... oh yea I'll give the getting rid of the boxes a bit of an extra there. There may be a cost in getting rid of the packaging but a smart manager should be able to recycle for free.

The Vintners Association :mad:

Davidth88

On draught cider, I was told by a publican once that the lines are really difficult to keep clean because they get really sticky.

IrishWhiskeyCha

lmtduffy wrote: »

keep in mind bottles are often more per ml than draught because of the cost of storing and sorting of the bottles for recycling.

This tirade is not aimed at you lmtduffy

But that is more rubbish from the Vintners trade trying to justify the bull on pricing. We are being totally ripped off and the pub trade is dying on it's feet yet they will not tackle the one reason that people are not going to the pup as often as they did ... pricing :rolleyes: ... idiots ... how can you feel sorry for a trade like that.

I used to work in a night club when I was a lad and 2 people could sort a whole raft of bottles in the bottle yard in an hour. So the extra labour is minimal in the big scheme of things. Soft drink mixers cost pittance and they is at least a 10 fold mark up on them. A vodka & Coke should cost the same as a pint or close to it.

Next put 1 Keg (88pints) beside 4 boxes of stacked beer x 24 bottles (96 beers) . Where is the major space difference, I actually think the keg may take up more space and is much heavier so a bigger effort in moving from yard to keg room. You have to provide fridges for bottles of beer but you have to have a whole spare room (basement) with coolers, gas canisters pipes with draught. Which is easier to manage tell me.

So where is all the extra work coming from ... oh yea I'll give the getting rid of the boxes a bit of an extra there. There may be a cost in getting rid of the packaging but a smart manager should be able to recycle for free.

The Vintners Association :mad:

rubadub

BeerNut wrote: »

Making it colder means you don't have to taste it. Another win for people who don't like the taste of drink.

And there are many many people who do not like the taste of booze. Bulmers is very like cidona and many people like ice in their soft drinks. It also dilutes it so means there is more to drink, it is popular on sunny days, if it is daytime and people are only having one or 2 drinks you often see people drinking them more. It will not have as much of a dehydrating effect if taking in more water. Of course you can just drink a glass of water every so often but the macho men are more scared of water than even diet drinks. Getting your water is a sneaky way around the machoness, just like pepsi max or coke zero are for real men, none of that poncy diet stuff;)

Mantel wrote: »

One reason people prefer is, you know what your getting from a bottle. With draft stuff it can vary from pub to pub depending on their pints. Then there's the pouring your own in to a pint glass with ice, makes you thing there's more of it It just sounds messier with a draft pint and ice on the side.

Never saw ice on the side, you would have to drink a bit and then stick ice in, would be messy. Some will moan about unclean pipes and then go stick a ice cube in made with dirty water handled by the piss drenched hand of a barman

ronaneire

Davidth88 wrote: »

On draught cider, I was told by a publican once that the lines are really difficult to keep clean because they get really sticky.

Publicans don't clean these anymore, they are done by a contracted company on behalf of the brewer.

Mantel

IrishWhiskeyCha wrote: »

Next put 1 Keg (88pints) beside 4 boxes of stacked beer x 24 bottles (96 beers) .

How many pints are in a beer? If it's 330ml bottles then it's

50 (roughly) litres (keg) compaired to 31.5 litres (bottles) even with 500ml bottles it's 48 litres, only a litre or two in the difference though

Actually, do the suppliers take back the bottles like the kegs or do the pubs have to get rid of them on their own?

lmtduffy

IrishWhiskeyCha wrote: »

This tirade is not aimed at you lmtduffy

But that is more rubbish from the Vintners trade trying to justify the bull on pricing. We are being totally ripped off and the pub trade is dying on it's feet yet they will not tackle the one reason that people are not going to the pup as often as they did ... pricing :rolleyes: ... idiots ... how can you feel sorry for a trade like that.

I used to work in a night club when I was a lad and 2 people could sort a whole raft of bottles in the bottle yard in an hour. So the extra labour is minimal in the big scheme of things. Soft drink mixers cost pittance and they is at least a 10 fold mark up on them. A vodka & Coke should cost the same as a pint or close to it.

Next put 1 Keg (88pints) beside 4 boxes of stacked beer x 24 bottles (96 beers) . Where is the major space difference, I actually think the keg may take up more space and is much heavier so a bigger effort in moving from yard to keg room. You have to provide fridges for bottles of beer but you have to have a whole spare room (basement) with coolers, gas canisters pipes with draught. Which is easier to manage tell me.

So where is all the extra work coming from ... oh yea I'll give the getting rid of the boxes a bit of an extra there. There may be a cost in getting rid of the packaging but a smart manager should be able to recycle for free.

The Vintners Association :mad:

No I agree completely they are taking the piss, but bottles are more labour intensive than kegs when it comes to storing,moving, serving and disposing.

And bottles take up space behind the bar and need to be brought from the cold/store room to the bar, they need to be restocked quiet often too if you wan to keep the fridges full as well as being sorted for recycling and yeh its easy to get through one in an hour with two people, but a lot of paces may have up to and over 10 to do after a Saturday night.
And regardless if a manager can get things recycled for free your still paying for someone to get the bottles form cold room to bar, bar to where ever you sort them and then to sort them by hand into there respective crates which also have to be stored until some one comes to take them.

Kegs are brought to the one place and can be changed there and removed from there.

toiletduck

Mantel wrote: »

Actually, do the suppliers take back the bottles like the kegs or do the pubs have to get rid of them on their own?

Depends on which bottles your talking about. For the sake of this thread, Bulmers do take them back.

rubadub

lmtduffy wrote: »

but bottles are more labour intensive than kegs when it comes to storing,moving, serving and disposing.

It sickens me being in rounds with bottle drinkers. In town I find the average is €5 for a pint of heineken and €5.20 for a bottle, that is €8.95 per pint. There is no way the additional overheads of serving drink in a bottle would cost €3.95 more.

lmtduffy

rubadub wrote: »

It sickens me being in rounds with bottle drinkers. In town I find the average is €5 for a pint of heineken and €5.20 for a bottle, that is €8.95 per pint. There is no way the additional overheads of serving drink in a bottle would cost €3.95 more.

I agree, but it wont cost the same.

irish_goat

With regards to getting a draught pint of bulmers and then a side glass of ice, the UK Bulmers company do an oversized pint glass that has a line indicating a pint. So you get a full pint and then there's room for the barkeeper to add ice. Should bring them out for the Irish Bulmers.

Max Power1

ronaneire wrote: »

A pint glass with ice and a large bottle, can't beat it. I'd like to know where you are paying €4 a pint?


.

Fibber Magees in dublin.. i got charged €8 for 2 pints of bulmers recently. Im more of a snakebite drinker though.

Quint

BeerNut wrote: »

As mentioned above, you can serve the bottled version over ice. Making it colder means you don't have to taste it. Another win for people who don't like the taste of drink.

You mean making it colder makes it more appealing on a hot day. Look at bulmers sales, it goes up during good summers and right down during bad ones. Nothing wrong with wanting a cold drink on a nice day.

BeerNut

Quint wrote: »

You mean making it colder makes it more appealing on a hot day.

Nope. No matter how hot it gets, your tastebuds remain active.

Quint wrote: »

Nothing wrong with wanting a cold drink on a nice day.

Nothing indeed. But drinks that don't have to be served at tongue-numbingly low temperatures in order to suppress the drinker's gag reflex aren't so subject to seasonal variations.

Quint

BeerNut wrote: »

Nope. No matter how hot it gets, your tastebuds remain active.

Nothing indeed. But drinks that don't have to be served at tongue-numbingly low temperatures in order to suppress the drinker's gag reflex aren't so subject to seasonal variations.

Not sure what you mean with your first point.
But drinking a pint of bulmers with ice outside on a hot day is a much nicer experience than without ice. It stays cold with the ice in it. any other drink is warm half way through. Obviously a drink doesn't have to be cold on a hot day, but for most people it's a better option to a warm one. I know bland beer appeal to the masses, but i don't think anyone actually puts ice in bulmers on a hot day to surpress their gag reflexes!

Carawaystick

rubadub wrote: »

In town I find the average is €5 for a pint of heineken and €5.20 for a bottle, that is €8.95 per pint. There is no way the additional overheads of serving drink in a bottle would cost €3.95 more.

What town?

Go west and get cans of bulmers for 3 euros odd. granted you are missing the magic 68ml, and a can isn't as nice as a large bottle but definitely nicer than draught bulmers.

grenache

Can i just point out to patrons, that the Bulmers price reduction does not extend to off licences. Thank you.

civildefence

€5.40 a bottle in 2 different pubs in Dublin 8 and €4.60 a pint. Has been the same for a long time. When does this reduction come into effect?

ronaneire

civildefence wrote: »

€5.40 a bottle in 2 different pubs in Dublin 8 and €4.60 a pint. Has been the same for a long time. When does this reduction come into effect?

The publicans are meant to be passing it on now. But how many have?

the beer revolu

grenache wrote: »

Can i just point out to patrons, that the Bulmers price reduction does not extend to off licences. Thank you.

Surely pubs and offies buy their Bulmer's stock from the same wholesalers at the same price?

rubadub

Carawaystick wrote: »

What town?

Have a wild guess :rolleyes: this feigning ignorance to attempt to make a point is tiring.

When I said pint I meant imperial pint too, i.e. 568ml, not the smaller US pint.

the beer revolu wrote: »

Surely pubs and offies buy their Bulmer's stock from the same wholesalers at the same price?

I would have thought so too, perhaps he owns an offie and wants to keep the price the same! No mention of it just being pubs here
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2009/0527/1224247501927.html

The manager in my local says he gets vodka in the cash & carry. Dunno if he does all the time, I thought it very strange, we replaced a bottle he "loaned" us once, and asked what we paid in tesco and said it was cheaper he gets it!

Quint

rubadub wrote: »

The manager in my local says he gets vodka in the cash & carry. Dunno if he does all the time, I thought it very strange, we replaced a bottle he "loaned" us once, and asked what we paid in tesco and said it was cheaper he gets it!

Yeah, it's true. I was having a party, so we were getting loads of spirits. Went to Musgraves to get them with my mate (owns a pub) thinking it's be dirt cheap. We ended up getting nothing, Tesco and most supermarkets were cheaper

Mimikyu

This post has been deleted.

rubadub

Captain Morgan wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

Yes but the point is reading the info it seems they have reduced it by 10c across the board, so whether it be from C&C or the wholesaler they should be 10c less if they do pass it on. Many factories do not want to deal direct and will guide you towards distributors who are often cheaper, I find this all the time in my work.

The way the other poster was talking it was like C&C or musgraves or whatever wholesalers would be questioning you if it was going to be sold in a pub or offie, and only drop the 10c on pub sales.

grenache

the beer revolu wrote: »

Surely pubs and offies buy their Bulmer's stock from the same wholesalers at the same price?

Some do yes. But why the off licences be reducing their price on Bulmers when they're not the ones ripping consumers off. The pubs are. The off licence trade, although not as healthy as it was last year, is still in good shape. The pubs on the other hand need to see numbers coming in their door increasing, hence the price reduction only applying to pubs. NOFLA has said its members will not pass on the reduction. And no, i do not own an off licence, i just work in one.

Flesh Gorden

10% isn't a lot - but you can't beat their longterm marketing


I was one of the kids who grew up on Cidona and loved it

Now I drink Bulmers



That's marketing!!!





.

rubadub

grenache wrote: »

But why the off licences be reducing their price on Bulmers

Because bulmers reduced the price to them with the intention of it being passed onto the customer, what do you not get about that? Bulmers is very expensive in offies, esp. the pint bottles.

grenache wrote: »

hence the price reduction only applying to pubs.

You say that like it is a logical fact, have bulmers specifically advised offies not to pass on the savings?

NOFLA has said its members will not pass on the reduction

So in effect they have told members to increase the price by 10c (or whatever amount you want to calculate), pretty poor form, esp. when there is a full TV ad campaign which will expose what they are up to. Same they never advise their members not to pass on increases.

gucci

Flesh Gorden wrote: »

10% isn't a lot - but you can't beat their longterm marketing

Its not, but considering how overpriced it is in the first place, then its a lot, 50 or 60 p is still a saving, and will largely be seen as a positive marketing exercise.

the beer revolu

grenache wrote: »

Some do yes. But why the off licences be reducing their price on Bulmers when they're not the ones ripping consumers off. The pubs are. The off licence trade, although not as healthy as it was last year, is still in good shape. The pubs on the other hand need to see numbers coming in their door increasing, hence the price reduction only applying to pubs. NOFLA has said its members will not pass on the reduction. And no, i do not own an off licence, i just work in one.

Generally, the retail price of a product is calculated from the cost price.
Most offies have around a 25% profit margin.
If the cost price is reduced, then the retail price should reduce too.

However, in reality, the price of something is somewhere between the cost price and what people are willing to pay for it (usually closer to the latter) plus VAT.
(unless you are a supermarket in which case the price might be below cost!)
Now I'm confused!

In this economic climate, I think it is foolish of NOFLA to take this stance.
"we weren't the ones ripping people off....."
well, now you are!

rubadub

gucci wrote: »

Its not, but considering how overpriced it is in the first place, then its a lot, 50 or 60 p is still a saving, and will largely be seen as a positive marketing exercise.

I kept thinking it was 10cent not 10%, I think I am used to hearing brewries putting up a pint by 10cent, never mentioning %.

I don't think it will be 50-60cent, it sounds like bulmers are decreasing the price to the buyers by 10%, there is no way they are paying €5 per bottle.

It will be interesting to see what they do reduce it by, which would reveal the price bulmers actually charge. If they only reduce it by 5cent and claim to be fully passing on the saving, then they are really saying "we buy this stuff for next to nothing and charge you a fortune, a 10% reduction in what we pay is feck all as it is so cheap for us to buy".