Tennent’s off-trade volume share of 24% has fallen marginally from 24.6% the year before, according to its parent group C&C's annual results.
This is a reflection of the Scottish beer brand benefitting in the previous year from disruption that competitor brands experienced, as well as growth of the premium category.
During the year, the lager's on-trade volumes recovered back to 74% of 2020 levels, with direct delivered outlets recovering to 88%.
Tennent’s performance was aided by Scotland qualifying for a major football championship for the first time in 23 years.
"Our multi-channel advertising campaign and associated on and off-trade promotional activity helped in part to drive brand health improvement with Tennent’s Lager brand index score increasing from 14.6% to 16.9%," the financial statement explained.
The group's manufacturing site at Wellpark in Glasgow continued to build its sustainability credentials, being voted as Sustainable Brewery of the Year at the Scottish Beer Awards and hosting dignitaries and events during COP26.
Investment the site has made to remove 4,000 tonnes on C02 and 150 tonnes of single use plastic during the last financial year.
"With the inflationary pressures, especially around aluminium and energy, we have introduced a lighter weight pint can for 2023 and continue to focus on efficiencies at the site to drive down energy usage, of which 100% is now generated from renewable sources.
"Together this will ensure that we have a competitive manufacturing cost base whilst delivering on our sustainability commitments," the report noted.
The results also revealed that C&C has offloaded its entire minority interest in Admiral Taverns to property fund manager Proprium Capital Partners. The group had originally invested in Admiral - which has a portfolio of more than 1,600 pubs - with Proprium in September 2017.
As part of the divestment, C&C has agreed to long-term supply agreement with the Admiral estate, that includes its owned and agency brands.
Following the reopening of on-trade in January, the group is now trading with 79% of outlets in February 2022, compared with the same month in 2020.
Following the launch of e-commerce platform Tennent’s NI, 33% of on-trade revenue in Ireland was captured online last year.
Meanwhile, in Australia, C&C signed a new distribution agreement with Good Drinks Australia to distribute Tennent's and other brands. And in North America, Tennent’s volumes were 11.1% higher than during 2020.
Despite Covid-related restrictions during 2021, the wider group returned to profitability for the year.
Dublin-based C&C reported net revenue of €1.43bn, operating profit of €47.9m and net debt of €271.3m.
"Cost inflation pressures and concerns associated with the potential consequences of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine have grown over recent months," the report explained.
"In response to this challenging and evolving inflationary backdrop and uncertain macro environment, in November, the group implemented a series of price increases which, alongside our previously announced cost reduction programme and cost hedge positions, afford us a degree of cost protection as we enter into 2023."
Bulmers and Tennent’s continued to build on market share gains, the group's distribution businesses returned to profitability and a previously announced cost reduction programme made progress.
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