Westons Cider, the UK’s leading authentic cider maker, is expanding its offering and adding New Zealand-founded Ranga Alcoholic Gingerbeer to its collection of premium drinks.
The feisty and refreshing new addition will be brewed in its Herefordshire mill and Westons will drive all sales and distribution for the product across the on and off-trade.
The new partnership reflects Westons’ long-term growth strategy of collaborating with brands that offer clear synergies with the family-owned cider business. The introduction of Ranga to the Westons Cider portfolio also marks a diversification of its offering – and follows the announcement of a partnership between Westons and premium Dutch botanically brewed beer, Lowlander, in February 2020.
Ranga Alcoholic Gingerbeer was originally created by three friends in Gisborne, New Zealand in 2012. An ode to one of their grandfather’s recipes, Ranga is a refreshing ginger beer proud to be a little bit different. It is now the number one alcoholic ginger beer in New Zealand with a 71% market share[1].
At 4% ABV, Ranga is lightly carbonated and perfect served with ice and a slice of lime. Crafted with a cider base, it’s carefully blended with ginger for a clean, dry and refreshing alcoholic drink with a feisty kick. Ranga also contains just half the amount of sugar as other ginger beers[2].
“Westons has long been associated with quality, provenance and heritage and this will continue to be our focus as we broaden our offering and help bring innovative products to the UK market,” says Darryl Hinksman, Head of Business Development at Westons Cider. “Ranga is a brand which shares the Westons’ values and champions premium quality so we are very excited to be brewing and distributing such a unique offering.
“We see Ranga resonating particularly strongly with younger drinkers and we expect broadest appeal to be amongst experimental 25-38-year olds. The great news is that there’s lots of room for growth in the category as there are currently so few products sitting in this space.”
Bevan Wait, Founder and Honorary Ginger at Ranga adds “Joining forces with Westons Cider means we can take Ranga to consumers across the UK via pubs, bars and restaurants and in their own homes. Our brand is all about bringing people together and celebrating uniqueness, so the fact that Westons Cider has been doing the same thing for 140 years is what makes this partnership such a great fit. We can’t wait to see what British drinkers think of our fiery concoction”.
Ranga Alcoholic Gingerbeer is now available to the on-trade and off-trade in 500ml glass bottles, complete with bright orange labels for maximum stand out in-fridge or on-shelf.
Run by the fourth generation of the Westons family, Westons Cider – based in Herefordshire – also produces brands Henry Westons and Stowford Press.
[1] New Zealand Supermarket Sales – Nielsen YE Mar 2019
[2] Joint research by Eurofins & Distil Research Agency
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