‘How’s Madrí doing for you?” I asked a barman the other day. “Yeah, it’s flying out,” he replied. “They’ve had it in Spain for about five years now, and just launched it over here.”
It’s a common story you’ll hear in pubs across Britain. When lager drinkers got back to the bar after the tortured restrictions of the pandemic, this friendly-looking Spanish brand was waiting for them, as if it had always been there. The bright red roundel, featuring an illustration of a hipster-looking guy in a flat cap, is repeated on the branded, stemmed pint glass that everyone seems to be holding, evoking what the ads call “El Alma de Madrid”, or “The Soul of Madrid”.
Welcome to the most successful new beer launch in history. The highest growth ever seen from a new brand has propelled Madrí Excepcional, to give it its full name, from nowhere to the top five biggest British beer brands in less than two and a half years. Since October 2020, it has racked up sales of over £430 million.
- The Sunday Times. To read the full story click here
