Sainsbury’s has quietly launched its private label craft beer brand Hyde & Wilde into the on-trade, The Grocer can reveal.
The supermarket has signed a deal with on-trade wholesaler StarStock to seed the beers, which are exclusively brewed for Sainsbury’s by Marston’s, into pubs and bars.
“We regularly explore different services to give customers more access to our great quality own-brand products,” a Sainsbury’s spokesman told The Grocer. StarStock did not comment.
Hyde & Wilde has previously been touted as one of Sainsbury’s most successful tertiary brands. In its November 2018 results presentation, the retailer revealed Hyde & Wilde had become Sainsbury’s second-biggest craft beer brand a matter of months after its June 2018 launch.
It comes as Sainsbury’s is increasingly blurring the lines between retail and hospitality: it last month secured exclusive rights to the first range of retail products by healthy fast food chain Leon, and listed a range of ready meals created by Nigel Haworth, chef patron of Michelin-starred Lancashire restaurant Northcote Manor.
It has also run a duo of headline-grabbing pop-ups in London in recent months: a ‘plant-based butcher’ that showcased its growing range of vegan and vegetarian products in June, and a low and non-alcoholic pub, called The Clean Vic, which ran in July, exhibiting the retailer’s low and non-alcoholic drinks selection.
This latest move comes after The Grocer revealed last week that Tesco plans to take its Finest brand into out-of-home with a series of pop-up wine bars in London and other major cities in the run-up to Christmas.
A confidential briefing by Tesco, seen by The Grocer, outlined plans to use the pop-ups for Finest wine tastings with sommeliers, along with tasting platters and ticketed food and drink masterclasses.
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