Three pitch for £3.5m Worthington Creamflow business

Bass Brewers is holding a three-way pitch for its &£3.5m Worthington Creamflow business after dropping roster agency WCRS.

WCRS was taken off the account last week as part of Bass’ plan to employ a separate agency for each of its five key brands. It will continue to handle Bass’ market-leading Carling lager brands.

Bass spokesman Stuart Cain says: “WCRS has not done anything wrong. We have just said to it that, because of the strategy review, we will be looking for someone else for Worthington.

“Our aim is to have a separate agency dedicated to each of our key brand. We want agencies to be totally focused on the brand in question, rather than being split across two or three.”

Bass’ Tennent’s brand is handled by the Leith Advertising Agency; Roose & Partners has Caffrey’s; while Grolsch is handled by EURO RSCG.

WCRS has held the Worthington account for four years, having snatch-ed it from former roster agency Bates Dorland.

In the past year, the brewer has spent &£10m marketing the Worth-ington brand, including the “It’s a man thing” TV campaign, and &£5m sponsoring football’s Worthington Cup, as part of its five-year, &£23m deal.

One supermarket buyer says: “The draughtflow, or ‘widget’, sector is in decline. There is only room for two brands in the market: Boddingtons and John Smith’s. Worthington is still not a key brand in the South.”

Bass claims Worthington recently overtook Tetley to take third place in the draughtflow sector, having increased overall sales – across the on and off-trade – by ten per cent.

St Luke’s, Mother and HHCL & Partners are thought to be pitching for the Worthington account.