Vocation, one of the UK’s largest and fastest growing craft beer breweries, is rebranding its entire range. The new designs bring more personality to the packaging and better reflect the distinct character of each beer inside. The Vocation name also features more prominently, allowing consumers to identify the brand more easily and to enable better trial across its ever expanding, innovative portfolio of beers.
The new designs highlight Vocation’s bold flavours and uncompromising quality, using bright colours to help differentiate the individual beers while carefully maintaining the brand’s strong craft sensibility. A new ‘Vocation V’ brand icon has been introduced to add interest and allow for easier identification of Vocation beers.
Brand design agency Robot Food designed the new branding and has been Vocation’s design partner since its beginnings in 2015. The newly branded range is available now across most retailers in 330ml and 440ml cans, and across the on-trade – on draught and in cans. New point-of-sale material including branded beer runners, parasols and glassware is also available to all on-trade customers.
John Hickling, founder and CEO of Vocation Brewery, says: “As a brewery we have quietly gone about our business since 2015 in a beer-focused way, not making big noise or banging the drum. What started out as my vocation soon evolved to be the vocation of our small but dedicated team who all have a real pride in the beers that we produce.
“We’re now growing at 65% year-on-year, and have a wide and varied core range as well as producing specials and seasonals. Our flagship Life & Death beer is now one of the best-selling beers in the craft aisle, representing around 30% of our production, yet people don’t know about us. The rebrand is about the maturity and growing confidence of the brand, to shout a little louder and make sure everyone knows about Vocation. It’s simply about wanting to get better beer to more people.”
Rick Stenson, managing director for Vocation Brewery, continues: “For us, it is all about the beer. To honour our beers we want the best clothes we can buy them. We want them to look as good as possible because we care so much about them. It’s also important to us to keep the designs fresh and interesting, to best reflect what’s inside, and to keep us at the forefront of the craft beer market. The liquid inside remains the same, we’ve just treated them to a new outfit.
“We’re stronger now in the supermarkets now than we have ever been, which is testament to our hard-working team and the first-rate beers we produce. The big focus for us now is to turn to the on-trade as it starts to recover and open up, and respond to the demand for craft beer in pubs and restaurants. Over the last 18 months we have gained an extremely strong online following through our web sales. We have also gained significant inroads with our export market, with our beers now available in 50 countries around the world.”
Vocation Brewery is an independent craft brewery based in Hebden Bridge, Yorkshire, founded in 2015 by John Hickling, with just himself, a rebuilt chicken shed and a dog for company. Today the brewery has 60 staff and sells the equivalent of 10 millions cans per year. They’ve come a long way, but it’s still their vocation.
ENDS
Notes to editors:
- Vocation’s core range comprises:
- Life & Death (6.5% abv): a ballsy, US style IPA with flavours of tropical and citrus fruits, with a lingering bitterness set against a smooth malty backbone
- Divide & Conquer (5% abv): a fearlessly hop forward New England Pale Ale with notes of pineapple, passionfruit and pine for an uncompromising juiciness and a haze that won’t quit.
- Hop, Skip & Juice (5.7% abv): a tropical pale ale with heavy doses of citrussy Simcoe to get lips hopping.
- Bread & Butter (3.9% abv): a dry, hopped pale ale using layers of US hops set against a backbone of British malts. What this beer lacks in strength, it makes up for in character.
- Heart & Soul (4.4% abv): a session IPA with an intense fruit-salad character that comes from generous additions of US West Coast hops. Notes of passionfruit, gooseberry, pineapple and mango.
- Smash & Grab (8% abv): a hop-bomb DIPA, crammed full of fruity tropical and citrus flavours from only the freshest, tastiest, hops. The finish is smooth, sharp and moreish.
- Hebden Lager (5% abv): in our little town of eccentrics and artisans we like to create the unexpected and unrivalled. This clean, crisp and refreshing lager is no exception.
- Pride & Joy (5.3% abv): a classic, American-style pale ale which is crisp, very hoppy and aromatic. Flavours and aromas of mango, citrus, earthy pine, tropical fruit and blueberry.
- Perfect Storm (6.6% abv): packed full of citrus aromas and a boatload of hops, this New England Pale Ale is dank and juicy with full-on flavours and low bitterness.
- Triple Vision (10% abv): a thick and juice Triple IPA. Some say three’s a crowd but in our opinion it’s the more the murkier. This Triple IPA has got you in its sights.
- Sweet Temptation (6.6% abv): a chocolate caramel stout collaboration beer with the giants of Brew York. This silky smooth, rich and seductive stout is impossible to resist.
- Roll with It: (5.2% abv): with super juice hops and a pillowy soft mouthfeel, this DDH Pale Ale is hazy, hoppy and dangerously drinkable.
- East & West: a collaboration between Gweilo and Vocation, East & West Pale Ale is a soft, hazy beer imparts notes of ripe papaya, guava and pineapple, leading into a dank flavour profile on the finish.
- For more information about Vocation, please visit vocationbrewery.com.
Press release from Vocation Brewery
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