Aston Manor Cider trials

We caught up with Amit Patel from One Stop Duchy Stores in Salford, who worked with Aston Manor Cider to trial its range in his store.

Here’s what he had to say about the products and how they performed with shoppers:

“We know the importance of supplier activations. We have to be ahead of the curve with new products and key trends in alcohol and partnering with suppliers is a major way we do this.  We’d never worked with Aston Manor Cider before, but their insights, PoS and product support were impressive.

“Cider represents a third of our alcohol sales, with dark fruit flavours continuing to drive growth within the category. I find brand loyalty is a bigger factor within cider than in other categories and our shoppers will switch format size before they switch brands.

“That said, ‘affordability’ is becoming a very important consideration for us and our shoppers, and something we need brands to help us offer. When we brought Crumpton Oaks in, it very quickly became a bestseller. It’s not only available in a bigger format than competitors – a pint can – but it’s a more affordable option than others on the market. It’s better value for money and our customers notice that.

“By the end of the trial, we had sold through all the trial stock we had across Crumpton Oaks and Knights. As a result, these products have stayed as a permanent line. Crumpton Oaks flew off the shelves and really didn’t require much additional promotional support from us, customers just bought them.”