Lion pricing fiasco hits profit

The local beer market, having being fairly steady in the past few years, shrank by 3.5 per cent.

Murray said the mainstream brands Speights, Lion Red and Waikato had experienced "an unacceptable price and volume trade-off in the last six months".

Although Lion’s figures were exaggerated by reduced stocking, some make alarming reading. Lion Red dropped 16 per cent in volume, Waikato 9 per cent, Speights 6 per cent and Stella Artois 11 per cent. Of the mainstream brands only Macs, up 8 per cent, and Steinlager, up 1 per cent, registered increases.

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