Heineken has discontinued three underperforming ciders from its Strongbow and Old Mout brands after sales fell sharply in the past year.
Old Mout Strawberry & Apple, Strongbow Cloudy Apple and Strongbow Zest have been axed after sales declined by £2.5m, £2.3m and £2.0m respectively in the past year [NIQ 52 we 18 April 2026].
Strongbow Cloudy Apple and Zest have already been delisted, last appearing in Ocado and Asda in September 2025 and July 2025 respectively, according to Assosia data.
Old Mout Strawberry & Apple was still listed in Morrisons at the time of publication, but has been widely delisted elsewhere. Annual sales of the cider last year amounted to just £170k [NIQ 52 we 18 April 2026].
Approached for comment, Heineken UK confirmed all three ciders were no longer in production.
“As part of regularly reviewing our range, we have made some improvements to our cider portfolio to ensure we are offering our customers the flavours that most appeal to shoppers’ tastes and deliver the strongest performance in store,” a spokeswoman for HUK said.
“We are committed to maintaining the most effective portfolio possible,” she added.
The three variants were delisted to allow HUK to pivot “towards new flavours with greater consumer demand and growth potential”, the spokeswoman said.
The shake-up comes amid poor sales performance generally for the Strongbow brand.
Off-trade sales fell by 6.4% on volumes down 9.0% last year [NIQ 52 we 6 September 2025] and have continued to slide into 2026, data compiled for The Grocer’s Britain’s Biggest Alcohol Brands report 2026 will next month show.
Old Mout, meanwhile, has fared marginally better than its HUK-owned peer, but the brand remains in both volume and value decline [NIQ 52 we 18 April 2026].
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