In a landmark deal for its flagship cider, Aston Manor has agreed a partnership with national on-trade operator, Marston’s Beer Company, which will see the cider maker exclusively supply the draught formats of Kingstone Press for a minimum of three years.

The long-term deal makes the brand nationally available throughout Marston’s extensive network of free-trade and national retail customers for the duration of the agreement.

Kingstone Press is available on draught immediately, with the Wild Berry draught variant to follow.

This is the first time Aston Manor Cider has secured a partnership of this scale with a national on-trade operator.

Glen Friel, sales and marketing director at Aston Manor, said: “We are delighted to be working with Marston’s, a great business, local to us, and with national reach.

“This is a really big step towards us achieving our goal of growing Kingstone Press into a nationally distributed, top ten draught cider brand.”

Commenting on the partnership, Simon Barnes, director of on-trade at Marston’s, said: “It made absolute sense to work with Aston Manor as our cider partner. As the UK’s largest independent cider maker, we know they have the capacity and capability to understand our customers’ needs and deliver what we wanted.

“More and more we are noticing our customers are responding to consumer demand for a wider range of draught cider on the bar.

“With Kingstone Press we’ve got a great tasting, authentic cider with genuine regional provenance which will provide a real point of difference.”

Glen added: “With Kingstone Press we’re creating a platform for greater national awareness and consumer engagement through a record investment in brand sponsorships and activation.

“By establishing the brand as the Official Cider of Rugby League, we benefit from the growing national exposure of the sport with over 24 million fans who regularly attend matches or watch on TV.

“This year Kingstone Press was also the Official Cider and finisher drink of Tough Mudder. Delivering refreshment when it’s really needed, we reached over 100,000 participants in this year’s series of events throughout the UK.

“Reaching so many drinkers in this way establishes Kingstone Press as a growing brand. Going forwards we will continue to make significant investment to raise the brand profile and boost performance in the on-trade.”