ANOTHER GROWTH PICTURE. And yet, just as quickly, industry folk question the interest in cider like they do the longevity of craft. But segment leader Bret Williams of Woodchuck's Vermont Hard Cider says they've had 80 consecutive record-breaking growth months, starting back in 2005. "We finished up 30% in 2011, with growth through the 2 million CE mark" Bret told CBD. Shippings totaled 3 million cases last year, 2.3 million of them Woodchuck. That's 165,000 barrels of Woodchuck, 240,000 total-company, to include Strongbow stateside [the No. 2 US cider brand after Woodchuck], Wyders and Woodpecker. To place that growth in context, Vermont Hard Cider Co. had 40% of 2011's U.S. cider volume share, according to Euromonitor International's February reportage on the US Cider/Perry category. And yet the company lost five share points last year within the category, as overall company sales growth of 7% still didn't match the category's 20% volume increase.
But the biggest news for Vermont Hard Cider in the last few weeks has been landing a new building permit. "We're going to have a shovel in the ground in spring for a $22 million, brand-new facility," to add an extra 90,000 square feet of operations, Bret says. That will take their footprint to 2.5 times its current size to 600,000 barrels capacity.
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