Emersons sold

[Colin Slater]

Interesting news.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/small-business/7911796/Lion-buys-Em...

[Brett Mason]

Well they held out longer than I would have managed. In the short term this is probably going to open a lot of doors for Emersons in NZ, including tied pubs. It will probably help internationally too.

In the longer term I worry that even if they are independent they will still be under more pressure to return a profit to the shareholders. Trying to be  an optimist hopefully they will be able to achieve this through reducing their distribution/bottling/etc costs rather than quality.

[Richard Deeble]

I agree entirely with Stu and Greg. I don't want to sound judgemental but I am noticing more and more of a kind of snobbery developing among some craft beer fans in New Zealand, where anything remotely mainstream or big is shot down, often quite unfairly and not on merit. Much like people bashing on Boundary Road for their "Resident" beers and marketing campaign (I thought their IPA and Red Rye ale were pretty good by the way), I think its a little small minded and short sighted of us to bash efforts to broaden the variety of beer available to people in New Zealand. Sure, lets be critical of no-substance branding and marketing, but lets judge the beer on its merit. 

To me the purchase of Emersons is a sign of the progress craft brewing is making in New Zealand. It is popular enough that it companies are being seen as valuable assets This is not like McDonalds buying out Georgie Pie, its not like Emerson's is destroying Lion's market share. My hope is that it makes good craft beer like Emersons more available for consumers which then has a positive effect on our beer and drinking culture. Sure, we can act to keep Emerson's honest so that they don't become the next Monteiths or Macs, but I don't we should be bagging them simply because they have been successful. Craft beer is changing our drinking culture for the better. Lets stop throwing stones and continue to encourage positive change wherever we see it.

[Brett Mason]

Really surprised how shocked I was by this yesterday. In the wait and see camp today.

The ODT has some more on their motivations for selling. Sounds like they were at the point where if they wanted to keep expanding they needed some significant investment.

http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/233643/business-usual-emersons

[Colin Slater]

Which is like pretty much most business that get to a certain size, having sold one and taken some dogs abuse for it all I can say is unless you have been in that position you cannot criticise. I won't bore you with the details but there comes a point when you have to do something or go backwards which is not where Emersons want to go.

On the plus side we should be able to get Emersons everywhere - yee ha !

[Vesku]

"Wellington bars drop Emerson's after sale"

[Adam Sparks]

Why would you say something like that....? That is a really elitist response. Im sure the beer will tastes exactly the same while Richard and his team are still at the helm. I assume its a contractual part of the sale that Richard remains with the company. Hopefully things keep moving onward and upward.

[Vesku]

Maybe there's some contract issues? They can't sell Lions products?

I don't see my self as an "elitist", but to me this Lion thing is really off putting. It's like when you find some local soda on holiday and buy it to find out that it was made by the Coca Cola Company. To me, it's not all about the beer's taste. OK, maybe I'm a little snobby and elitist....

Luckily most of the people aren't this way inclined and continue to buy the Brand(s), but sometimes it takes a little to destroy the Brand.

There's an interesting book about these little things, if anyone is interested: Malcolm Gladwell: The tipping point

Same authors book "Outliers", could have a chapter of Emerson's success story in it :)

[Druid]

As part of their whole cult beer brand, HZ have always made a big deal about never stocking DB or Lion - in fact, they proudly state this on a a sign at the front door. 

Now that this has happened, I'd say they have probably found themselves between an ideological rock and a hard place... They can't very well be seen to be selling out now, regardless of the actual quality of the beer.

[JR]

If Emersons is going to be available at any old Lion pub why would HZ want to stock it?  HZ is a beer destination people go to to get beer that they cant get anywhere else. 

Even the pubs that say they will continue selling emersons (Pomroys etc..) might want to review that later on when you can get emersons anywhere.

To some extend its good news, when we are stuck at some restaurant or tied pub we will have the option of getting a good beer.  But when we make the effort to get to a good pub that sell independant beers we are going to want to try somehting else, not just get the same beer we could have got at any old pub.

 

[Phil Murray]

I don't have a problem with HZ not stocking it... especially when their point of difference is exactly that, something different. (Besides, I don't think I've ever drunk an Emerson's at HZ... I always want to try something new I haven't had, or can't get anywhere else. So it doesn't really effect me at all)

But the press-release was an over the top, and overly negative reaction I think.

I just think it should come down to taste, if the beer tastes bad then by all means stop selling it.

[mattd2]

Damn I am surprised at the reactions this has got. I would have thought people would at least given them the benifit of the doubt just to see if Lion starts to mess with things.

Like I said before hopefully Lion will have the sense to use Emersons to it's full potential as their craft beer arm to secure sales in this part of the market (one they know their usual beer mascurading as craft will never get into). They already have Mac's as their psuedo-craft brand, Emerson is has potential to do very well out of this... if Lion don't screw it up!

[Stu McKinlay]

Some more thoughts...

http://yeastieboys.posterous.com/tricky-ricky