S&N UK widget cans offer pub quality home lager

Scottish & Newcastle (S&N) UK is launching its Foster’s and Kronenbourg 1664 brands in widget cans, to offer “pub quality” lager at home. The move is the biggest innovation for both brands since they were first bought to the UK in the Seventies.

The famous widget cans were made popular by Diageo-owned Guinness, when it launched draught in cans in 1989. Since the late Eighties, many ale brands, including S&N’s John Smith’s Extra Smooth, have followed suit, but the launch of Foster’s and Kronenbourg 1664 widget cans is a first for the lager market.

On shelf from next month, the two launches will be supported by a £12m marketing and advertising campaign, including TV and outdoor.

Called Foster’s with “in-can Scuba” and Kronenbourg 1664 “with Dynamo Système” the new cans promise to deliver a “smoother serve from a chilled can”.

The move is also designed to attract a female audience to the otherwise declining lager market. The new cans will be available at a 15% premium to the regular Foster’s and Kronenbourg 1664.

A spokesman for S&N UK says: “Developed with a tailored size, shape and format, the floating widget inside the can, when opened chilled, will release smaller bubbles, creating a lively lager with a smoother taste.”