Heineken has announced its three-year plan to increase customer spend in premium apple cider with new products and brands.

The fastest-growing area in cider for the next three years is one that Heineken has identified as ‘artisanal apple’, which is broken down into three sub-segments. The company is developing products in each area.

The first area is Heritage, which contains brands that focus marketing on its history and quality, such as Thatchers Katy and Westons.

Heineken is tapping into this opportunity by teaming up with two of its growers, Kier Rogers and Sarah Hawkins to create Bulmers Orchard Pioneers, which comes in two flavours: Kier’s Cloudy and Sarah’s Red.

The products will be available to stock from February 2017 in 500ml bottles, RRP £1.80, as well as 4x330ml cans, and will be 30p more expensive than the RRP of Bulmers’ core range.

The second area is premium sharing, which includes products that customers could buy for dinner parties.

In this area, Heineken launched Stassen on trial in Sainsbury’s last year. The prosecco-style bottles are available in three flavours: Brut, Rose and Grand Cru, RRP £6, £8 and £10, respectively.

The brand is planning to roll out to ‘premium’ convenience stores next year, backed by experiential and PR activity.

The final area is modern craft, containing brands such as Orchard Pig. These brands are usually the single cider choice in craft beer pubs and resemble the packaging of craft beer brands.

Heineken is developing products in this area, which it will announce next year.

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