Refreshing approach
Refresh UK has done exactly what it says on the tin – taken a motley crew of brands and kickstarted them back to life. Ben McFarland reports
Refresh UK is to building beer brands what Red Adair is to fire fighting and the Priory is to famous folk addicted to naughty drugs, excessive drink and hanky-panky.
It’s a brands and brewing orphanage for beers neglected, forgotten and mistreated. Where undernourished brands seek shelter and sustenance, where their tears can be softly dabbed, where snot can be gently wiped from under their snivelling noses and where, against all odds, brands can be dusted down and pointed towards a brighter future full of hope, joy and, best of all, a tidy sales percentage growth.
Refresh UK was set-up in 2000 as a purchasing vehicle for the long-neglected Ushers beer business based in Trowbridge. At the time, chief executive Rupert Thompson had just finished a seven year spell at Morlands of Oxfordshire where he’d successfully worked his marketing magic on iconic ale brands, Old Speckled Hen and Ruddles, and breathed life back into its 300-strong tenanted pub estate.
Having had its tires kicked by a number of potential suitors, Morlands was gobbled up by Greene King in 1999.
Rupert left to set-up Refresh alongside a management buy-out team made up of four former Ushers directors. They inherited an ailing ale portfolio along with the United Kingdom rights to Löwenbräu lager. The German giant had been massive during the 1980s but Refresh had met it on the downward curve of its brand cycle.
Anticipating the growing popularity of imported speciality brands, Rupert took the audacious step o.....
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By Ben McFarland
Section : Beer Focus
Page number : 36
