Man your pumps, Wetherspoons are coming

emco

This is surely a massive bluff call by Wetherspoons. Heineken UK are hardly going to stand back and lose multi millions worth of business, just because the much smaller Irish arm of Heineken is involved in a dispute over one pub.

And Wetherspoons know they might find it tough in some areas they plan to expand into without stocking from at least one of Heineken or Diageo, but are in a strong enough position to do the bullying, which Heineken IRL definitely aren't used to.

Geuze

cronin_j wrote: »

I purchased a keg of Heineken recently from a pub for cost price. It cost them €155 ex VAT and you get ~88 pints for that. Including VAT cost price is €2.15 just based on what I paid. So €1.15 doesnt seem like much of a markup when you consider overheads

155 ex VAT means 1.76 per pint ex-VAT.

Sell that pint for 5.00 in Dublin, means 4.07 ex- VAT.

The gross margin is then 4.07 - 1.76 = 2.30 approx.

Now I expect the pub gets rebates off the 155 euro keg cost based on volume, etc.

A gross margin of 2.30 per pint before rebates looks good to me.

Waggaboo

emco wrote: »

This is surely a massive bluff call by Wetherspoons. Heineken UK are hardly going to stand back and lose multi millions worth of business, just because the much smaller Irish arm of Heineken is involved in a dispute over one pub.

And Wetherspoons know they might find it tough in some areas they plan to expand into without stocking from at least one of Heineken or Diageo, but are in a strong enough position to do the bullying, which Heineken IRL definitely aren't used to.

Definitely a case of who'll blink first. Great to watch!

Kangoo Man

I see on the news that Wetherspoons are in conflict with Heineken & Guinness over pricing in Ireland. It makes me wonder are Heineken and Guinness saying Ireland is a cash cow and we do want to be doing any deals which might bring competition to the Irish market.

Sure ya can't be doin' that now lads...

It makes me feel like we've been ripped off for years in Irish pubs, when Wetherspoons can sell most of their pints for €2.50, just wondering do other people feel the same?

listermint

Kangoo Man wrote: »

I see on the news that Wetherspoons are in conflict with Heineken & Guinness over pricing in Ireland. It makes me wonder are Heineken and Guinness saying Ireland is a cash cow and we do want to be doing any deals which might bring competition to the Irish market.

Sure ya can't be doin' that now lads...

It makes me feel like we've been ripped off for years in Irish pubs, when Wetherspoons can sell most of their pints for €2.50, just wondering do other people feel the same?

There is a whole thread on this already

Herb Powell

Reputable Rog wrote: »

It would not surprise me to see Heineken kill off Beamish in the near future with Murphys to follow soon after.

Beamish and Murphy's are MASSIVE in Cork, I'm having a hard time imagining this. If it's only the case in Cork, well, idk.....

listermint

Herb Powell wrote: »

Beamish and Murphy's are MASSIVE in Cork, I'm having a hard time imagining this. If it's only the case in Cork, well, idk.....

Big fan of Beamish myself .if you can it.beats the other stuff hands down if I'm in stout mode

Reputable Rog

Herb Powell wrote: »

Beamish and Murphy's are MASSIVE in Cork, I'm having a hard time imagining this. If it's only the case in Cork, well, idk.....

Beamish is big in the City as is Guinness. Murphy's has died a death in the City but still popular out the county.
The pub I frequent only has one Murphys tap compared to 2 Guinness and Beamish and its a very busy pub.
Just a few old fellas drinking Murphys.
Beamish is very big in Limerick but Murphys has disappeared.

emco

Another thing this dispute shows is that Heineken have no interest in promoting Beamish and Murphys. With Wetherspoons expansion plans here they were in position to be the only supplier of draught stout to a large network of pubs around the country, but this clearly didn't matter to them.

Kangoo Man

listermint wrote: »

There is a whole thread on this already

Could you please give me a link to this thread, the only one I could find was from 2003?

monty_python

Kangoo Man wrote: »

Could you please give me a link to this thread, the only one I could find was from 2003?

its the next thread down

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057028788&page=34

Reputable Rog

The Guardian are reporting that Murphy's and Beamish stouts will be replaced by Dark Side Stout and Marstons Stout, fine by me I'll drink them.
Marston's Pedigree is a fine beer so I assume there can't be much wrong with the stout.

irish_goat

Reputable Rog wrote: »

The Guardian are reporting that Murphy's and Beamish stouts will be replaced by Dark Side Stout and Marstons Stout, fine by me I'll drink them.
Marston's Pedigree is a fine beer so I assume there can't be much wrong with the stout.

I quite like the Marston's Oyster Stout and Bath Ales are ok. Neither of those beers are served on nitro though, afaik.

Lucena

If it's this one, I had it once a couple of years back and it was just ok.

http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/marstons-stout/4693/

Lovely Bloke

not having a nitro stout is going to be bad news for them.

BMJD

It's a shame that one of the Irish breweries like O'Haras or Eight Degrees can't move in and take up the slack, at least in the Irish JDWs anyway.

Ravelleman

irish_goat wrote: »

I quite like the Marston's Oyster Stout and Bath Ales are ok. Neither of those beers are served on nitro though, afaik.

I had a nitrogenated Bath Ales Dark Side in Bath a couple of months ago.

Reputable Rog

The craft breweries seem to be in rip off mode as well, a pint of Guinness/Smithwicks in Limerick City Centre on Saturday night was €4.70 v €5.60 for O'Haras/Galway Hooker etc.
One of the reasons new beers fail all the time in this country is that they are introduced at too high a price point.
A publican friend of mine wanted to introduce Bass on draught and sell it around the same price as Beamish, however C&C insisted on him taking Caledonian Smooth instead and selling it at same price as Smithwicks, when that failed and he again requested Bass they insisted on him taking Hoegarden and despite the fact that he was already selling Bluemoon at €4.80 per pint ( Dec 2012) they wanted him to charge €5 per pint.
Needless to say he no longer sells Hoegarden but replaced it with Dungarvan, which at €4.35 a pint is selling reasonably well.

Ravelleman

The advantage of this situation is that I can now re-commence my search for the cheapest pint of Beamish in Dublin - the race to the bottom.

schemingbohemia

Reputable Rog wrote: »

The craft breweries seem to be in rip off mode as well, a pint of Guinness/Smithwicks in Limerick City Centre on Saturday night was €4.70 v €5.60 for O'Haras/Galway Hooker etc.
One of the reasons new beers fail all the time in this country is that they are introduced at too high a price point.
A publican friend of mine wanted to introduce Bass on draught and sell it around the same price as Beamish, however C&C insisted on him taking Caledonian Smooth instead and selling it at same price as Smithwicks, when that failed and he again requested Bass they insisted on him taking Hoegarden and despite the fact that he was already selling Bluemoon at €4.80 per pint ( Dec 2012) they wanted him to charge €5 per pint.
Needless to say he no longer sells Hoegarden but replaced it with Dungarvan, which at €4.35 a pint is selling reasonably well.

Why are you saying craft breweries are in rip-off mode when your examples are of Macro breweries dictating price? Is it the pubs or the breweries that are setting the price for micro-brewed beer?

Reputable Rog

Craft Brewers are charging too much for their product both on and off trade. If they want to gain a foothold they should be charging less.
In the Uk craft beers in the pubs are cheaper than the main stream brands.

Heroditas

Reputable Rog wrote: »

Craft Brewers are charging too much for their product both on and off trade. If they want to gain a foothold they should be charging less.
In the Uk craft beers in the pubs are cheaper than the main stream brands.

Or maybe their base costs are much higher than a large brewer and as a result, they can't produce beer as cheaply as the large guys.
A lot of the micro breweries employ about 3 or 4 people and their sales are microscopic compared to the larger guys.
If they were absolutely rolling in dosh from charging these high prices, maybe the government should change the excise rules for them

BaZmO*

No, craft breweries should definitely only sell their beer at a loss for the first few years so they can gain a foothold in the market. Once they've gained a foothold, then and only then should they start increasing prices.

Paz-CCFC

drumswan

BaZmO* wrote: »

No, craft breweries should definitely only sell their beer at a loss for the first few years so they can gain a foothold in the market. Once they've gained a foothold, then and only then should they start increasing prices.

Not sure if serious?

Zebra3

Maybe ten years instead of just a few.

That oughta do it.

oblivious

Reputable Rog wrote: »

Craft Brewers are charging too much for their product both on and off trade. If they want to gain a foothold they should be charging less.
In the Uk craft beers in the pubs are cheaper than the main stream brands.

Traditional Cask ale is generally cheaper to keg, but cask is not considered craft generally.

Craft keg on the other hand has been gaining and increased price over standard keg and cask ale. Its even observed to be dearer in keg, when the same beer is avilable in cask

drumswan

OK sarcasm, phew.

From what the brewers tell me, a lot of the markup in pubs and off licences is down to the retailer and not them. Look at direct from 8 Degrees prices - ~1.80 a bottle for their core range.

BaZmO*

Zebra3 wrote: »

Maybe ten years instead of just a few.

That oughta do it.

Yeah definitely, and any profits after that should be given to charitable organisations.

oblivious

drumswan wrote: »

OK sarcasm, phew.

From what the brewers tell me, a lot of the markup in pubs and off licences is down to the retailer and not them. Look at direct from 8 Degrees prices - ~1.80 a bottle for their core range.

Also distributors and key kegs will also add to the price