C&C still has a hangover from US cider acquisition
THE party still hasn’t happened for C&C’s cider brands in the United States.
After partnering with Pabst in the US in 2015, it looked like C&C had found a solution to its ailing sales of Woodchuck cider. At the time Pabst, backed by a private equity firm and Russia-born entrepreneur Eugene Kashper, was credited for the revival of alcoholic root beer. But alas, the root beer bubble has burst.
The marketing and distribution partnership between C&C and Pabst began last May and in October the maker of Bulmers said it had a slow start. In a market update on Friday, the company said the cider category remained in double-digit decline. Magners sells small amounts, but C&C’s US brands “are lagging behind the category. The carrying value of the US assets will be reviewed as part of our full year end close process.”
C&C bought Vermont Hard Cider, owner of Woodchuck, for €235m in 2012 and has since written most of the value down. Apparently another round is coming from the cider maker.
DUBLINER David McMurtry, whose firm Renishaw is supplying laser technology for drones and self-driving cars (as we reported last month), has donated £180,000 through the business to a new industrial heritage museum in the UK, I’m told. It houses one of the last Concorde planes — McMurtry worked on its engines early in his career.
Aerospace Bristol, close to his company’s Gloucestershire HQ, is set to open this summer with the aim of inspiring future high-flying engineers like him, and the iconic plane arrived there a few weeks ago. According to the museum’s website, the Concorde will be its “show-stopping centrepiece”, while the museum’s ambassadors will include former Countdown host Carol Vorderman.
McMurtry, a 75-year-old car enthusiast, can well afford to make the donation to a good cause close to his heart. He owns 36pc of Renishaw which equates to a stake worth €910m, while the group employs more than 4,300 around the world, including 200 in Swords, north Dublin.