Carlsberg Marston's Brewing Company Customer Update

Dear Customer, 

The past 18 months have been a turbulent time for everyone in the hospitality industry, but it is pleasing to see that many customer outlets have re-opened and are trading. Clearly the vaccine rollout is continuing to gain momentum, which hopefully means further lockdowns are behind us. 
 
As you will be aware, during this time, Carlsberg UK and Marston's PLC completed a joint venture to become Carlsberg Marston's Brewing Company (CMBC). CMBC combines the best of both historic brewers to create a better beer company and leading supplier of beers, wines, spirits and soft drinks - and one that is proud to be your partner.

We are continuing to work through the integration of both businesses into CMBC and want to reiterate our commitment to ensuring that any changes are thoroughly planned and communicated to you well in advance. 

Secondary Logistics

We are excited to announce that we will be moving all of our secondary logistic requirements into a single, in-house operation, starting in March 2022. Within CMBC currently, we have two separate arrangements for managing our secondary logistic requirements. Legacy Marston's have logistics in-house.

To provide our customers with a single logistics network, it is necessary to integrate two existing networks into one. The fundamental step is part of our plan to win in the marketplace by supporting customers through the best portfolio, service and people. 

Technical Services 
In October this year, we are integrating our technical services by transferring the legacy Marston's service solution and highly trained Marston's Beer Quality Technicians to Innserve. 

Innserve is the UK's leading drinks dispense service provider and has remained at the forefront of the UK pub trade since 2005, supplying, installing and maintaining beer and soft drinks in over 80,000 licensed premises. Innserve's highly trained and dedicated team of over 400 technicians, provide a range of services including installation, maintenance and project management to licensees nationwide. The company's customer service team can make initial diagnostics and, if required despatch a technician to deal with more complex issues. 

You can contact Innserve on the freephone number 0800 085 4646 (option 2 for technical support and option 1 for maintenance). 

Best Beer Brands 

As a customer, you will continue to have access to an enviable portfolio of lagers, ales and craft beer brands that are brewed in our eight UK breweries, complemented by those we license from our partners:

• Lagers such as Carlsberg Danish Pilsner, Carlsberg Expørt, Poretti, San Miguel, Estrella Damm, Erdinger and Kirin
• Premium cask and packaged ales, including Hobgoblin, Marston’s Pedigree, Wainwright, 61 Deep and Tetley’s, plus innovation in the pipeline
• Craft beers from the portfolios of Brooklyn Brewery, Shipyard and London Fields Brewery
• A broad selection of alcohol-free beers to meet growing demand

Your BDM will be delighted to talk you through the combined portfolio to understand what works best for you and your customers in order to unlock value and give you a competitive edge.

Sales and Business Support 

Alongside our portfolio, we will continue to provide you with access to industry-leading assets and support, to help build your business:

• A UK-leading dispense offer comprising DraughtMaster and the Carlsberg Quality Dispense System, which ensure quality, fresh beer, minimal line cleaning or added expense
• Access to our team of wines and spirits specialists who offer you dedicated support, category knowledge, training and menu planning
• Additional added value opportunities, including access to savings on utilities and products appropriate to your business

Ways of Working  

Alongside your dedicated BDM, you can also contact our customer service team for phone support and ordering. In addition, for customers already set up with online ordering platforms, we continue to provide support through Carls Shop, We Deliver More and Marston’s Online. As these platforms are refreshed, we will contact users directly.

We are also progressing well towards becoming one company with the necessary consolidation of our IT systems and associated ways of working nearing implementation in January 2022. We are working hard to execute a smooth transition and will keep you updated over the coming months. 

Finally, we would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your continued support and we look forward to building back our businesses together – bigger and better than before. 

 Yours faithfully,

Simon Barnes

VP Sales Free On Trade