Award-Winning Brewery Launches New Brand Image
Sales increase as reinvigoration reflects premium quality
West Berkshire Brewery (WBB), the brewer led by serial international brewing and pub entrepreneur David Bruce, has unveiled a new, modern brand image and bottle design for its range of award-winning British bitters, pale ales and stouts.
The move follows a seismic year, which has seen the company welcome new investors amid continued fast growth. The overhaul was motivated by the desire to give WBB’s range of craft products a more premium image that better reflected the quality of its award-winning ales – and its standing with pub goers and beer aficionados alike.
Bruce, Chairman, said: “The new branding reflects the premium quality of our beer and is helping us to raise our profile in the competitive craft beer market. We wanted to ensure the new look is distinctive with strong visual impact – each beer brand has a unique style, whilst retaining cohesion across the range and also the company’s strong heritage.”
Since May, WBB has worked closely with leading London design consultancy, Colt, and also engaged Chris Mitchell of Epic Icons (who created the new HP Sauce logo) to develop the look of the bottled beer range and pumpclips. WBB’s original ‘Gobbin’ Quaffer’ logo has been adapted by placing the character into a rural scene, generating a more contemporary appearance.
Vicky Mills, WBB’s newly-appointed Marketing Director, said: “We are absolutely delighted with the new image. It has driven further increases in sales across both pub groups and off-trade retailers, as well as opening up opportunities for export. Given that getting our award-winning beers into more people’s hands – and driving trial – was the key motivation, these results are testament to Colt’s fantastic work on this project.”
In addition to the new look, the initiative saw WBB move away from the basic wrap label for its bottles, to embrace a classic front, back and neck label.
Multi-award winning classic bitter “Good Old Boy” (4% ABV) is among the newly-designed range, which also includes strong bitter “Dr Hexter’s Healer” (5% ABV), a Great British Beer Festival winner, and the uniquely refreshing “Mr Swift’s Pale Ale” (4% ABV).
