British cider makers launch Find Your Cider campaign for harvest 2026

British cider makers launch Find Your Cider campaign for harvest 2026

Sep 24, 2026

As harvest gets under way across British orchards, the UK cider industry is coming together behind Find Your Cider, a campaign backed by the National Association of Cider Makers (NACM) that encourages cider drinkers, including those who only reach for a pint now and then, to explore the breadth of the category and discover new styles worth adding to their repertoire.

The campaign brings UK cider makers together to post shared messaging across three key dates this autumn: 25 September, National Apple Day on 21 October, and 13 November. Each date has its own focus, from the breadth of styles now available in the category, the apples that go into cider to the orchard teams and cider makers behind every bottle and pint.

Cider is one of the UK’s proudly homegrown drinks industries. More than 95% of the cider consumed in Britain is made here, making the UK the world’s largest cider market, worth £3.17 billion, according to Westons Cider Report data drawn from CGA, Circana and Kantar. Around 450 cider makers produce that cider, ranging from small family businesses to global exporters, and together support 65,000 jobs and £1.4 billion in wages across the UK, according to analysis by Oxford Economics.

Harvest is the busiest and most important time of the cider calendar. Cider makers work with more than 300 farmers across 14,500 acres of orchards grown specifically for cider, and every bottle starts with apples harvested and pressed at this time of year.

Pubs, bars, hotels and restaurants remain central to the category. Two-thirds of cider’s value is spent in the on-trade, and on-trade cider spend grew 3.1% last year, a sign of the role cider continues to play in supporting hospitality businesses in every part of the country.

Cider is in an exciting period of innovation, with growing interest in lower and no alcohol styles and new formats giving drinkers more ways to enjoy the category than ever before. Find Your Cider is designed to shine a light on that variety and encourage drinkers to explore it for themselves this autumn.

Martin Thatcher, Chair National Association Cider Makers, said:

“Cider is such a wide and varied category. It’s the skill of the cider maker that turns a humble apple into such a broad range of tastes and styles. Find Your Cider is about encouraging people to try something different this autumn and discover ciders that suit far more drinking occasions than they might expect.”

Mark Hopper, Public Affairs Director at the National Association of Cider Makers, said:

“Cider already reaches a huge range of drinkers, but there’s real scope for people to enjoy it on more occasions, not just the ones where they might automatically reach for it. Find Your Cider is about showing how varied the category has become, from crisp and refreshing styles right through to something richer and more complex.”

Find Your Cider is a consumer campaign backed by UK cider makers, running throughout autumn 2026 with coordinated activity on 25 September, National Apple Day (21 October) and 13 November. Follow the campaign on social media using #FindYourCider.

Find Your Cider assets and campaign details are available here https://cideruk.com/find-your-cider/

Impacts from the Autumn Budget for The Cider Industry

Nov 1, 2024

The Chancellor has just announced a wide range of changes in one of the longest Budget statements seen in recent years. The sheer complexity of changes included in the statement will take time to review and better understand the full impacts for businesses.  However, at first glance, there is little for the cider industry to cheer about.

UK Cider making has a unique business model. It is partly about making cider by fermenting apple juice to make alcohol, but when blended by a skilled cider maker, it is about marketing and selling a wonderful range of drinks, running a business that employs people and contributing to the local community. Cider makers also grow apples and work closely with local farmers to ensure that there is sufficient fruit to make their ciders, working together to harvest and mill the fruit to make the much-needed apple juice.

The Autumn Budget appears to have targeted each of these aspects of cider making in ways that will negatively impact the industry for years to come.

Alcohol duty was increased for packaged ciders by the higher rate of inflation figure from February next year. The cider industry had asked for a reduction in duty to reverse the hugely negative impacts from the 10.1% duty hike in August 2023. From February next year cider drinkers will see further increases to the cost of the ciders that they buy in bottles and cans, either in the pub or at home.

The Chancellor announced that excise duty on draught ciders would be reduced by 1.7% to better support the pub. Whilst this is welcomed, as 2/3rds of cider value sales come from the hospitality sector, it fails to recognise the huge amount of cider sold in bottles across UK pubs. In addition, the reduction in business rate relief for the hospitality sector will result in additional pressure on the pub sector, already in significant decline. The cider industry depends on a vibrant and healthy hospitality industry.

Cider makers are businesses and the increase in employer National Insurance, alongside such a significant cut to the threshold, is a bitter pill to swallow for producers. The pressure that this will add to profitability can only result in either higher prices for cider drinkers or reduced employment. With so many cider makers operating tourist attractions, providing tours, shops and restaurants, the increase in National Living Wage again puts pressure on the cost of doing business.

Finally, cider makers are often family businesses with their roots in agriculture. Many families started making cider decades ago, alongside the family farming operation. The decision to target these hard working families through inheritance tax, ensuring that the farm must shrink with each generation, puts farming, cider apple orchards and the wonderful UK cider industry at risk.

UK Cider Makers support more than 11,500 jobs, 15,500 acres of cider apples orchards, 300 farmers, and attract more than 1 million tourists each year. The category is valued at more than £3billion and contributes £34million to agriculture in farm gate value of cider apples. It is critically important that the government now looks to work with cider makers, farmers and the hospitality sector to understand how it can reverse the worst of these impacts and encourage growth and innovation.