Going national: Great Northern Original

Carlton & United Breweries aims to build on the momentum of the Great Northern trade mark by launching the full-strength variant nationally.

Great Northern Original Lager was launched in Queensland in 2010 as ‘the beer from up here’ and has up until now been available only in that state.

“We have had overwhelming feedback from consumers outside of Queensland asking that we make this iconic beer available to all Australians. We’re excited to now offer Great Northern Original nationally,” said CUB VP Marketing Richard Oppy.

“Great Northern Brewing Company has seen unprecedented growth and will be a focus for CUB: It is a true success story.

“Queenslanders are rightly proud that such a great tasting beer, associated with the Queensland way of life, has been embraced by the rest of the country.”

The rollout builds on the tremendous success of the mid-strength offshoot Great Northern Super Crisp, which has come at the expense of rival Lion’s XXXX Gold.

CUB said Great Northern Super Crisp and stablemate Pure Blonde Premium Mid have collectively accounted for a 107 per cent share of dollar growth in the mid-strength category.

“In other words, those two brands alone generated more sales growth than the entirety of brands in the category,” the brewer said.

Great Northern Super Crisp is growing in value at 180 per cent and Great Northern Original at 48.6 per cent.

Lion recently announced the launch of Iron Jack, a new contemporary mid-strength beer, in an apparent bid to tackle Great Northern Super Crisp.