The beer that saved a brewery - the story of St Austell Brewery Tribute

 

St Austell Brewery looking splendid in the Cornish sunshine

As I write this blog today Tribute Pale ale is St Austell Brewery's flagship brand and one of the leading cask ale and bottled beers in the UK. However, back in the turn of the millennium it was a very different story.

When I joined St Austell Brewery in early 2002 its beer brands were in decline, unloved by local Cornish customers and its reputation was old fashioned compared to a new wave of brewers that had evolved in the far South West. Both Sharps and Skinners were seen as brewing far more interesting beers and in terms of quality, their beers were annoyingly more consistent. St Austell Brewery struggled to shake off its St Awful nickname and many of the older beers such as Tinners, Duchy and even HSD were tainted by this.

Newly appointed Head Brewer Roger Ryman worked hard with his brewing team to improve the quality of the beers but once you get an unsavoury reputation its hard to overcome. In 1999 Roger first brewed Tribute, it was originally called Daylight Robbery, a seasonal beer to celebrate the eclipse. The new beer proved so popular that licensees clamoured for it to be retained as a permanent beer. The Daylight Robbery name was not suitable for the long term so top London Advertising Agency, Design House were tasked to come up with a name and pump clip design and in 2001 the new Tribute was Born.

Roger Ryman (right) with Roger Protz receiving the Supreme Champion Beer Accolade from Falmouth Beer Fesitival in 2004

When I joined St Austell Brewery the aspiration was to build an ale brand to combat the successful local brewers (Sharps etc) and also to have a brand that would compete on the national stage with the likes of 6X and Old Speckled Hen. The chosen brand to do this was HSD but it soon became apparent that good as this beer was, it sparked little interest on the national stage and was too closely linked with St Austell's poor reputation to achieve great things locally. However, the good news was Tribute was seen as a modern tasting pint and untainted with the poor St Austell reputation so it was Tribute that was eventually backed as the chosen son!

Tribute really is a great beer and Roger had chosen two fantastic hop varieties in Styrian Goldings (one of his favourites) and Willamette (also used in Budweiser) as the main hop ingredients. It is a hugely drinkable golden beer, balanced in terms of bitter/sweetness but packs enough hop flavours to appeal to the emerging younger market. Initially described as a Premium Cornish Ale, Roger as ever was on the ball and realised beer styles were becoming important to drinkers so this was soon changed to Cornish Pale Ale.

Original Tribute pump clip design

There are many great beers that don't ever become great beer brands so its at this point the marketing of Tribute became important. One big advantage we had was that Tribute had no competitor brands within the St Austell portfolio, no Korev or Proper Job. My time at Morland marketing Old Speckled Hen had also taught me that brand focus rather than the brewery focus was one of the key elements of success and as a marketing team virtually all of our efforts and budgets went into the marketing of Tribute rather than St Austell. 

We over invested in quality point of sale for pubs, making sure the Tribute brand name was always visible to drinkers on drip mats, bar runners, ice bucket etc, whilst branded glassware was popular with licensees and drinkers alike. There was even a Tribute mascot - Trevor Tribute as he became known was wheeled out at various events.  We could not afford large scale advertising so adopted a strategy of local sponsorships and there were many over the years, but two important ones that stand out was the close association with rugby and Plymouth Argyle. Tribute sponsored grass roots rugby across the South West as well as the Cornish County rugby team, it became the Official Beer of South West Rugby, a title that gave the brand great credibility and opened doors for the sales team.

Signing the deal to sponsor Cornwall Rugby

The Plymouth Argyle sponsorship was another long running relationship and showcased the brand to the city of Plymouth - the cities population is almost as much as the whole of Cornwall and at one stage we were selling more Tribute in Plymouth and the surrounding area as the whole of Cornwall!

Mascot Trevor Tribute with Plymouth Argyle mascot Pilgrim Pete

St Austell had a very robust Freetrade sales team and could claim to be the South West's leading supplier to licensed trade, but it was an odd relationship as in the early years as they operated more as a wholesaler than a brewery sales team. They sold many brands including Sharps Doombar and loyalties were to the strongest brands and what the customer wanted rather than to St Austell's own beers. Doombar in particular was a problem in that although different in beer style to Tribute, it was by far our biggest competitor and a barrier to success with our sales team. However, one Monday morning the world changed - overnight Sharps withdrew supply of Doombar to St Austell as they wanted to create their own sales team and sell direct. It suited Sharps but it also suited Tribute as any barriers with the sales team disappeared as they sought to replace Doombar with Tribute. At last, our own sales team were as focused as the marketing team in selling our own beers.

Some early years Tribute point of sale

On the national stage Cornish beers, led by Doombar were becoming very fashionable and Tribute rode that particular wave. Our National Sales team had always been totally focussed on Tribute and growing from our South West heartland, Tribute soon became a very strong brand across the whole of the south of England, both in the on and off trade.

Another challenge was creating a brand personality for Tribute. The name Tribute was a great bar call, but added limited personality. The sponsorships helped but in marketing we came to realise how important the colour purple was to the brand. Its not everyone's favourite colour but soon, everything we did for Tribute was associated with purple and this was quickly recognised by customers. Thus, Tribute took ownership of the colour purple!

The colour purple, Tribute deck chairs at Somerset Cricket Club

I recall when I first joined St Austell they were only brewing two or three days a week and the annual barrelage was just 17,000 barrels per annum. In truth, were it not for the passion of the then MD, James Staughton and of course Roger Ryman to build an ale brand and invest in the brewery, St Austell would surely have ceased brewing and become a pub group. Instead, in 2015 St Austell celebrated brewing 100,000 brewers barrels per annum (Tributes contribution circa 60,000 barrels). In 2019, with the purchase of Bath Ales the company barrelage was over 150,000 barrels. Of course other great brands have come along since but without Tribute St Austell would likely have closed its brewery prior to 2010, sold off its freetrade business and focused on its pubs and hotels. Tribute changed all of this and probably did literally save the brewery.

I would finish by mentioning a short story involving Roger and myself. A year after I joined he asked me how many barrels I thought we could grow Tribute too. I pondered for a moment and replied 20,000 barrels, we both laughed as that target seemed unreachable at the time. Of course its all history now as Tribute has far outgrown that figure and established as a fantastic brand, but Roger would often remind me of the story with a knowing smile as the years went by.

The story of Korev, a very Cornish lager

Originally launched in 500ml bottles in 2010 and then on draught in 2011, Korev lager has been an outstanding success story for St Austell Brewery. It was conceived by St Austell's Head Brewer, the late Roger Ryman as a result of challenge from the companies Board of Directors. They felt that although Tribute had become a tremendous brand in the ale sector, the company needed to look to the future where lager sales were on the increase at the detriment of ale.

To create the new lager Roger worked closely with the St Austell marketing team. One of the first tasks was to come up with a name for the new brand and create its values and imagery. We wanted a brand that was uniquely Cornish but at the same time was a premium lager, capable of taking on the major World lagers such as San Miguel and Heineken. A local advertising agency, Bray Leino who were based in North Devon were instructed to help us achieve this and they came up with the name Korev. 

Korev is the Cornish word for beer so fitted perfectly with our ambitions. The imagery created reflected the Cornish heritage, focusing on the Cornish cross and using the Cornish coastline as a backdrop. However, the name Korev, although brilliant in its Cornishness to those in the far South West, was to prove a double edged trait.  As the brand began to grow from its geographical roots many drinkers wrongly assumed the name was eastern European and that the new lager must come from Poland or similar! 

Roger Ryman pictured at the initial bottling run of Korev

With the marketing of Korev going well, Roger was busy developing the new lager. He used a genuine Bavarian bottom fermenting yeast strain and although Korev was originally brewed in traditional squares, cylindroconical vessels would eventually be installed. The brew time of the new lager was to be two weeks, before transferring to a lager tank at -1degree C holding (lagering) for a further week before packaging.

Korev was initially brewed in bottles, but the challenges really began when it was launched on draught a year later. When Korev was launched Roger likened brewing a lager to running down the beach naked as there was no hiding place - the flavours in lager are delicate and subtle so any imperfections to the taste would be immediately obvious. Roger originally described Korev as being in the Hellas style although overtime he would change this view to being more of a Pilsner style and I'd have to agree with this later description.

It was in the summer of 2011 that the brewing challenges of Korev really began to hit home. St Austell had a very strong sales team and they were champing at the bit to get Korev on draught. By the early summer of 2011 installs were going so well that St Austell had to restrict them, production of the new lager could not keep up with demand. As a result, the lager time in tank began to shrink from the planned one week as sales demanded more - Roger would later reveal that for some brews it had been as little as one day. Regretfully this affected quality and the clean crisp refreshing taste of Korev began to take on other less attractive more sinister flavours - Rogers naked run on the beach analogy was coming true!

There was huge demand from licensees and the sales teams for the new lager but St Austell simply did not have the production capacity to meet this in the first year. Somehow we got through that difficult period and Roger would remark years later that we were a little fortunate that no long term damage was done to the brand with the inconsistency of flavours.  A valuable lesson was learned and further investment in production facilities was soon in place as well as improved awareness of likely demand.

On the marketing front it was important that Korev developed some aspirational brand values. A link to surfing seemed ideal and a contract was negotiated to make Korev the Official Beer of Surfing GB (later to become England). This was a major masterstroke as we were able to place Korev in many high profile coastal bars etc that would become shop windows for the brand. 

Korev sponsored Looe Music Festival

Other sponsorships and appointments of brand ambassadors soon followed including Luke Dillon, Newquay based surfer and the highest ranked British surfer in the World. Sponsorships extended to many outside events/festivals such as Looe Music Festival and North Devon's Oceanfest as a strong link to music was built up giving the brand appeal to a younger market. Evermore engaging and innovative merchandise were developed such as the Korev Ford Ranger which became a familiar sight at events, plus giant deck chairs, steel barrel poser tables, seemingly hundreds of feather flags and there was even sponsorship of a Silent Disco!

The Korev Ford Ranger and a selection of merchandise on show for a sampling at Exeter University

The Korev story was completed in 2017 as a brand update took place tweaking the imagery to make it more contemporary. A new bespoke premium glass was also developed which gave Korev access to an improved head keeper. This latter point was important as Korev could sometimes pour a little flat compared to its peer's and the new glass resolved that issue.

Updated Korev bar font and glassware

As a marketer I was very proud to have worked on the Korev brand and was one of those that put in many hours at festivals etc making sure the Korev branding was always premium and to the forefront. It is a great brand and has led the way for other regional lagers to follow but has always remained true to its Cornish roots with strong premium credentials. I'll end the story here apart from the following, as there can be fewer greater measures of success than these comments from the St Austell sales team.

"Korev is a great door opener for us, licensees want to stock Korev but as they can only buy it from St Austell Brewery they have to trade with us, it has become a must stock brand for many pubs and bars in the far South West".