Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP) Australia has announced that following a strategic review, the company will withdraw from the sale and distribution of the Rekorderlig Cider brand in Australia.
CCEP VP licensed Tobias Hoogewerff said the relationship between CCEP and Rekorderlig Cider brand owner AB Abro Bryggeri (ABRO) had lasted nearly ten years.
“As the CCEP organisation continues to align as a bottler of our brand partner, The Coca-Cola Company (TCCC), re-aligning Rekorderlig cider to a distributor with similar future ambitions in the cider category will enable brand owner ABRO to best maximise its future growth ambitions for Rekorderlig in Australia.
“The close to 10 year partnership between CCEP and ABRO is to be celebrated; both teams have passionately driven the Rekorderlig brand over the years and will continue to work together to ensure a smooth transition for our customers and for the Rekorderlig brand,” said Hoogewerff.
The closure of CCEP’s ABRO partnership follows the end of its 16-year manufacturing, sales, and distribution partnership with Beam Suntory, a result of the formation of Suntory Oceania. CCEP was responsible for the sales and distribution of the Beam Suntory spirits portfolio, as well as the manufacture, sales, and distribution of its alcoholic RTD portfolio in Australia since 2007 and New Zealand since 2015.
At the time, CCEP regional managing director of Australia, Pacific, and Indonesia, Peter West said that CCEP planned to continue in the alcohol sector, seeing alcoholic RTDs as ‘an attractive proposition due to its fast growth and synergies with CCEP’s existing knowledge and technical expertise’.
Going forward, CCEP and ABRO will work together to transition the Rekorderlig Cider brand to an alternative distribution partner by 1 July 2024.
