Hofmeister

Pitch

About the Campaign

Once the fourth biggest-selling beer brand in the UK with a brand valued at £100m, today Hofmeister still enjoys over 40% brand awareness amongst UK adults in its category. Now as consumers look to upgrade their drinks, we're ready, with the help of our iconic bear George, to fill the Bavarian-sized gap in the premium world beer market.

Following approaches from a number of the larger UK beer companies we’re delighted to have signed an exclusive distribution deal with Keystone Brewing Company. This makes us the only world lager in their portfolio available to the 36-strong sales force. This simultaneously helps distribution growth and significantly reduces the operational cost for the business.

Market Opportunity

Demand for world beers, worth £4.73 billion in the UK on-trade, has gone up. Now it's the single largest selling category of the total beer market, up almost a quarter on two years ago and accounting for over a third of pounds spent on beer.

Yet Bavaria, that brewing powerhouse visited by over 6 million people each year just for its Oktoberfest is missing, in any meaningful way, from the global world beer brand line up. Italy, Spain, Czech Republic and Belgium are all well represented but ask your average beer drinker in the street if Bavaria makes wonderful beer and they nod their head, ask them to name one and they scratch it.

Traction & Key Accomplishments

- 1314% turnover growth in the last 5 years.

- Tripled distribution in the past two years and now stocked in 765 outlets.

- 40 top industry awards for quality including IWSC’s World’s Best Lager, Gold at the European Beer Challenge for six consecutive years and a top 3-star rating in the Great Taste Awards 2024.

- Voted fifth most-wanted beer on the bar by consumers looking for new and authentic brands in the 2025 Kingfisher Boring Beer Index.

- National wholesale listings with LWC, Molson Coors and Matthew Clark, alongside a strong network of regional wholesalers.

- Created ‘Hoftoberfest’ as a key calendar event and due to support over 200 parties to celebrate Oktoberfest in 2025.

.- Secured listings in outlets for Metropolitan Pub Company, Loungers, Fullers, Brunning and Price and Cheshire Cat Pubs and Bars.

- Chosen as the premium German lager by Lufthansa for their first class & business lounges.

- Partnered with award-winning global creative agency BBH and premium outdoor media owner, Ocean Outdoor, to deliver a planned multi-media brand campaign across 2025, 26 and 27.

- Sales up 44% in the initial 4 months of partnering with Keystone Brewing Company exclusively for sales and distribution.

Use of Funds

BRAND

We will put significant investment into continuing to grow brand awareness and fame that will support our sales and distribution growth ambitions. This will see us work with BBH, our creative agency partners and Boomerang, our social agency, to deliver a high-profile, multi-media campaign across premium Ocean Outdoor out-of-home sites and digital to communicate the more elevated experience Hofmeister now brings.

SOCIAL

Social and digital will play a huge role in our strategy to grow awareness, fame and engagement. We will be working alongside social agency, Boomerang (part of the Publicis Groupe) and BBH to deliver our proven creative platform across social channels so that we can start to win in the digital space, amplify our messaging and grow fame for our much-loved brand.

TRADE MARKETING

We will continue to invest into launching our beer in new outlets pouring Hofmeister. We want to excite staff and consumers alike, ensure quality and add an injection of the personality that we want to be known for.

HARDWARE

Our exceptional beer sits alongside fonts, glassware and mobile bars of outstanding quality. We will continue to invest in producing hardware that give consumers buying Hofmeister the premium experience that they demand in a beer of such calibre.