Page 50 - SMI Issue 62

Beers, Wines & Spiritsespecially popular with seafarers having a strong connection to the brand, many of whom find their roots back to the Philippines.”He said with over 100 years of heritage and presence in over 50 countries, the brand had remained relevant to many of its consumers though he believes the potential of the San Miguel brand within the ship supply industry remains “largely untapped”.“Though we are experiencing encouraging growth at the moment,we remain hopeful that we can further develop and increase our business relations with the ship industry,” he said.However, Mr Hernández said the effect of the slowdown of the global economy on the shipping industry had posed a threat to San Miguel’s sales volume.“The challenge is for us to capitalise on this growing segment by making our brands available in as many ships as possible by further developing our network to this channel.”He said he did foresee further growth considering the potential growth for the shipping and cruise industries.Mr Hunter said the need to adapt and react quickly and anticipate a market that changes rapidly has become more prominent recently.“Everything happens instantly in our age of social media and digital market product development. The challenge is to keep up to speed with new brands and seek new opportunities.”CG Hibbert strongly believes the key to its success is how it performs for its customers and supports it brand partners.“We have great relationshipswith our core customers and with the support of our key beer brand owners we continue to develop sales in our marketplace,” said Mr Hunter.“This close relationship with our brand owners means we are continuing to develop and introduce new products and concepts to increase our market share.” uTitanic beer supplier prepares formajor milestoneNext year sees a significant milestone for CG Hibbert – supplier of beer to the Titanic – as the company celebrates 250 years in the business.The Dover-based supplier of duty free wines, spirits, beer, tobacco and other tax-free products to the travel retail industry, was one of the founding members of the British Association of Ship Suppliers (BASS).In the early days, CG Hibbert operated from St James Street in London and as the business grew, the company opened warehouses in East India Dock, Southampton and Liverpool before eventually relocating to Dover in 1979 where it operates from today.CG Hibbert has a colourful and interesting history and in the early 1900s was the main supplier of beer to cruise ships including the Titanic.In 1901 the company built a bottling plant and bonded warehouse in Southampton and from here beers were bottled and labelled for exportation across the globe.Today, the company provides a secure warehousing, consolidation and distribution service to all duty free sectors including ferry and ship stores and airports covering the UK and Europe and the business continues to go from strength to strength securing sole supply contracts with customers and new distribution contracts with global brand owners. u48 | The Ship Supplier | Issue 70 2016