Sales and profits slide at Aston Manor as cider market loses fashionable fizz
BRITAIN’s biggest independent cider maker, Aston Manor, has reported falling sales and profits as the once fashionable tipple falls out of favour.
The Birmingham-based company, controlled by former Aston Villa chairman Herbert Ellis, paid out £1.25million in dividends to its owners despite a ‘UK market that is continuing to decline’.
However the company said it was outperforming the market and was increasing export sales. Managing director Gordon Johncox said: ‘We are better equipped than any other producer to grow and develop the cider category.’
Sales for the 12 months to December 31, 2015 fell from £123million to £109million, while pre-tax profits dropped from £6.9million to £5.3million.
Cider sales boomed in the early 2000s but have recently fallen sharply. In the notes to the accounts, the company said that UK cider volumes contracted in 2015 and ‘this will most likely continue in 2016’.
Aston Manor, which was founded in 1983, is the second largest cider producer in the UK. As well as producing brands such as Malvern Oak and Kingstone Press, it also makes Frosty Jack’s super-strength cider, which is 7.5 per cent alcohol by volume. The brand hit the headlines a few years ago when it was included on a list of undesirable drinks drawn up by Plymouth City Council in a crackdown on high-strength drinks. The company launched a 6 per cent version in response.
The family-owned company sponsors the Rugby Football League and the Tough Mudder series of obstacle-filled cross-country races.