FDBusiness.com

One of Ireland’s largest on-trade wholesalers with a heritage that spans 150 years, Britvic Licensed Wholesale, is undertaking a large scale repositioning programme which includes rebranding the company to Counterpoint and rolling out a new model of customer engagement for the licensed trade.

As part of this repositioning, Counterpoint has announced the creation of 20 new jobs in Dublin and the addition of two new distribution contracts for Walkers Snacks and Findlater Wines. The 20 new positions will be located at Counterpoint’s head office in Kilcarbery Business Park in Dublin and will service customer care and also financial accounts functions previously undertaken in the UK.

Counterpoint, which distributes to over 7,000 bars, hotels and restaurants nationwide, will be the exclusive on-trade distribution partner for Walkers Snacks which will see the product range stocked in pubs across Ireland. Counterpoint has also signed a distribution deal with the Findlater Wine & Spirit Group, one of the country’s largest wine and spirit distributors and part of DCC Food & Beverages. This will significantly expand the range of wines Counterpoint supplies to the drinks trade which include Wolf Blass, Torres and Cono Sur.

Finbarr O’Doherty, managing director for Counterpoint, says that Counterpoint wants to challenge the status quo in the trade by changing the way business is done. “The licensed trade in Ireland has undergone radical change in recent years and we are evolving our business to successfully compete in this new trading environment.  Our new customer engagement model is unique to the on-trade as it is based on a partnership approach that goes beyond purely a supplier relationship. We are focussing on the needs of our customers so we can deliver a strategic advantage. We see significant potential in the licensed trade and we feel the key to unlocking this is for us to deliver truly profitable partnerships for our trade customers through collaboration, consultation and delivering insights and brands that will help publicans deliver growth.”

Counterpoint will also expand the roll out of its innovative and first to market on-trade iPad ordering service – currently in use by 600 publicans – to over 1,000 customers in bars, hotels and restaurants nationwide. Counterpoints portfolio of wholesale packaged beers includes market leaders such as Heineken, Carlsberg, Budweiser, Becks and Coors Light and it is the leading island-of-Ireland on-trade supplier of soft drinks with 42% market share.