Westons Cider is eyeing growth by tapping into renewed interest in apple and vintage ciders.
At the launch of its annual Westons Cider Report, the Herefordshire-based supplier said apple ciders were outperforming the wider cider category, climbing 5% in value year on year [Circana 52 w/e 27 December 2025]. By contrast, fruit ciders and pear ciders have declined by 8.2% and 2.7% respectively.
“Apple cider is what’s driving the market,” said Emily Jenkins, off-trade category manager at Westons Cider. “It’s 67.4% of [total off-trade cider] sales and growing. Fruit cider or flavoured cider is now less than 30%, the lowest percentage I’ve seen it since I’ve been working in the category.”
To tap renewed interest in apple cider, Westons will next month roll out a 3.4% abv Sweet Apple variant under its Stowford Press brand.
The NPD was aimed at drawing new, younger consumers into the cider category, said Tim Williams, insight & innovation manager at Westons Cider.
“Apple cider can use its provenance and authenticity in this [lower abv] space,” he said. “Consumers are moderating and it’s a great place to recruit new, younger drinkers into cider.”
Meanwhile, crafted cider continues to perform strongly. The segment has grown 7.6% year on year and is now the fastest-growing part of the category, accounting for more than a quarter of total category value [Circana].
Vintage cider opportunity
Within crafted cider, vintage bottled cider continued to “deliver premium value for retailers,” growing 3.7% year on year, Westons said.
Two of the biggest launches in cider in the last year were vintage products, with Henry Westons 1880 and Kopparberg Sweet Vintage delivering £3.0m and £1.0m in sales respectively [Circana].
“Just seeing so many more vintage variants in the market is such a great thing for consumers,” Jenkins said. “It feels like whereas traditionally, if brands wanted to extend their product range they’d launch a fruit, now it has almost become that they’ll launch a vintage instead. That’s a good place for the category to be in.”
With the government’s EPR scheme disproportionately penalising glass bottles, canned cider has tightened its grip on the category and now accounts for over 65% of total category value. Pint-sized 568ml cans have surged 55.8% year on year, making them “a growing opportunity for retailers”, Westons said.
Nevertheless, with cider in glass bottles commanding a significant price premium over their canned counterparts (£4.39/litre vs £2.58/litre), the format remained “an important revenue driver” for the category, it added.
Meanwhile, Westons’ Henry Westons Vintage Pear has bucked wider declines in perry and pear cider, having added £660k in sales [Circana]. The variant, which was rebadged in 2024 in a bid to attract more younger drinkers to the perry category, is now worth £1.2m.
Westons is the fourth-largest branded UK cider supplier, with annual off-trade sales of £112.6m. Ahead of it are Heineken UK, Thatchers and Kopparberg, with annual off-trade sales of £333.5m, £227.1m and £143.2m respectively.
No comments yet