Giving Magners back its sparkle

One More Thing:Drinks firm C&C must be hoping John Holberry, the man who was this week given the unenviable task of turning around the sale performance of Magners cider in the UK, will show the same dedication to the job as he displayed with his last employer, Coors Brewers.

In 2005, when he was on-trade sales director with Coors, Holberry bought a thermometer and visited almost 30 cities to ensure that pints of Carling were being served at the right temperature and in clean glasses.

He discovered that none of the pubs served their mainstream lagers below six degrees Celsius, the maximum recommended serving temperature by Carling, the UK's top lager brand. Chiller cabinets were even worse, with none below 10 degrees.

Impressive sleuthing - Holberry comes with an excellent CV and looks like a good hire for the ailing Irish drinks group. He was sales director for Coors's on-trade and off-trade activities.

Coors is the UK's second-biggest brewer, with leading brands such as Carling and Coors Light.

Holberry will have his work cut out for him. Sales of Magners have been on the decline for the guts of a year, due to stiff price competition from Scottish & Newcastle and unseasonably bad weather last summer.

In the quarter to the end of November, sales of Magners declined by 30 per cent in the UK. A similar pattern of sales occurred over Christmas and analysts expect the decline to continue for some months yet.

One of Holberry's first tasks when he joins on March 18th might be to change the Magners marketing slogan: "A Time to Celebrate".