2:34pm Tuesday 27th May 2008
AN East Lancs firm is looking to make big strides in the American market after picking up a series of tips from across the Atlantic.
David Grant, managing director of Moorhouse's brewery, Burnley, has spent several weeks this year in Chicago alongside executives from some of the world's leading blue-chip companies.
He became the first British brewery executive ever to be selected to attend a two week marketing programme with the Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Chicago.
On the course were business chiefs from companies such as General Motors and Orange, and Mr Grant believes many of the lessons he learned over there can be applied to the company's future strategy.
He said: "It lets you to focus on points of difference. Since I've been back I have come up with a number of points.
"I realise we are not the cheapest beer, but we have a consistent product that sells very quickly which is a real positive for any landlord."
The trip coincided with two of Moorhouse's bottled beers - Blonde Bitch and English Owd Ale - receiving approval for distribution in America.
The American market represents only two per cent of Moorhouse's total sales but the company is soon to take on a full-time sales representative to focus on selling its brews along the east coast of America.
Despite an air of gloom over the UK pub trade, Moorhouse's continues to grow and posted April sales figures up 43 per cent on last year.
But Mr Grant believes the UK pub trade is set to experience a tough few years.
He added: "If you accept that the 64,000 pubs we had was too many and that some were being run by people trying to make a quick buck, then standards were spiralling down.
"Many became unviable and should have closed years ago. It is the badly run pubs that will go and eventually we will have half the current number of pubs still open. I don't think that's a bad thing."
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