Newcastle Brown Ale is unveiling a new look and a fresh, localized plan for growth in the United States under management of the Five Points Trading Co., White Plains, N.Y.-based Heineken’s venture aimed at incubating a range of premium global beer brands in the United States.
Newcastle Brown Ale’s new primary and secondary packaging highlights the vibrant gold, blue and orange colors of the brand identity, resulting in improved visibility on the shelf, on display and in the cold box. In addition, Five Points is reducing the number of SKUs available to focus sales and marketing efforts against the brand’s core retail and on-premise formats, the company says.
To coincide with the debut of Newcastle Brown Ale’s new look, production of Newcastle Brown Ale has officially moved from the John Smith’s Brewery in the United Kingdom to the Zoeterwoude Brewery in Holland.
“Moving production of Newcastle Brown Ale to Holland makes sense for our distributor partners and our consumers alike, said Charles (Chas) Littlefield, general manager at Five Points Trading Co., in a statement. “The move allows us to improve service levels including shorter order lead times, faster transportation to the U.S. and fresher product for our consumers. Despite the move, Newcastle Brown Ale fans can rest assured that the original recipe has not changed, guaranteeing them the best, freshest quality Newcastle Brown Ale they love, every time, whether purchasing at retail or at their favorite local bar or restaurants.”
“Moving production to Holland will also now allow us to ship Newcastle Brown Ale from Heineken demand points, enabling distributors to order by the pallet versus by container,” he continued. “This means Newcastle Brown Ale orders can be combined with other demand point portfolio products including Heineken, Amstel, Strongbow, Red Stripe, Tiger, Birra Moretti, Murphy’s Irish Stout and Affligem. The result — [a] fresher product available on a more timely basis.”
Under Five Points management, Newcastle Brown Ale’s commercial priorities will shift to a hyper-local focus, concentrating efforts and resources against the greatest local market opportunities where current and high-potential Newcastle Brown Ale fans live, the company says.
“At Five Points, our agility, entrepreneurial spirit and hyper-local focus is engrained in our mindset and behavior making us bigger than we are in our key battleground markets,” said Amy Tay, brand director for Five Points Trading Co., in a statement. “For Newcastle Brown Ale, that means going back to basics to drive consideration and trial through non-traditional and grassroots platforms. We’re excited to unveil our 2018 programming in the coming months.”
Newcastle Brown Ale is 4.7 percent alcohol by volume and is packaged in six-, 12-, and 24-packs of 12-ounce bottles and on-premise in 20-liter BrewLock kegs and 50-liter standard kegs.
