Toast from town as Carling hit four-million barrels mark
BURTON-BREWED Carling crashed through the four million barrels mark for the first time in its history in August 2001.
At the time it was by far and away the country’s top selling lager, with more than 1.152 billion pints a year being drunk — that was three million pints a day or 73 pints a second during normal pub hours.
The chart-busting sale was also good news for the Government — as it was worth almost £400 million a year in tax and duty and a massive £800 million a year to publicans.
The total retail value to Burton’s Bass Brewers was £1.75 billion. Industry figures at the time also showed the gap widening all the time between Carling and what was the country’s number two lager brand, Fosters.
In 2001 Carling outsold Fosters by 210 million pints a year.
The news was also very good for Burton as more than half the four million barrels were brewed in the town — the other two plants being Alton and Tadcaster. Carling marketing director Mark Hunter said: “Four million barrels is a unique achievement, the latest in a series of record-breaking firsts which have ensured Carling stays at the very top of the UK beer market.
“Carling spends more than any other lager brand in the UK. This year alone Bass Brewers is investing £43 million behind the brand — £10 million up on last year.”
To mark the four million barrels milestone, a gold barrel was produced. Four million barrels meant almost 400,000 pints of Carling were sold during a football match and nearly 1.5 million during television sports programme Grandstand on a Saturday afternoon. If one pint of Carling was placed on every seat at Manchester United’s Old Trafford ground, it could fill the ground 17,000 times. Seen rolling out the golden barrel with members of staff are marketing director Mark Hunt, commercial director Chris Edger and brand manager, Carling, Dave Mcarthur.