having worked in the liquor industry for a number of years, i will share my experiences of Fosters and crown lager:
Crown lager sales have declined massively since approx. 2005, due mostly i believe to import beer becoming readily available at a decent price, an Australian premium label beer being over priced in comparison
i do not know anyone personally that selects crown lager as a beer of choice, the only person i know that drinks it has bought a case for xmas every year, as they see it as some sort of a tradition
Crown lager is not fosters in a different bottle. between myself and customers discussing this with people from CUB, the answer from them has always been a resounding negative.
for a number of years, the people who made stocking decisions at the company i worked for decided that stocking Fosters would be a good decision. this was back in the day - probably somewhere in the region of 2005 to 2010. Fosters was at the time trying to instigate a comeback in Australia, and organized some cheap behind the scenes pricing to ensure bulk supply at major liquor outlets. in the years my store stocked Fosters, we only sold 1 x 6 pack to an Asian gentleman, the rest went out of date and was binned. fosters was seen as such a laughing stock by our customers that the staff actually took bets on how long it would be before we could sell any.
in my opinion fosters is a beer that was good for its time, which was a time when beer selection at venues was limited. now you have untold numbers of beer choices, with many different styles from around the world. fosters is a dinosaur that is just simply not up to the same level as other beers on the market in the same price point, so it doesn't sell.
on the subject of DW8, while we have a bunch of reps out and about signing up wineries, do we have anyone that targets other long life items that B2B purchasers may want? things like soft drinks/mixers, beef jerkey, glassware, napkins, etc? items that are utilised fast enough to warrant resupply often enough to make high turnover possible.
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