THE Red Stripe brewery increased its marketing spend by more than one-third to include football sponsorship and new beer packaging amid posting a massive jump in profits for its March quarter 2015.

The company made $367 million net profit after tax on $2.9 billion in net sales over three months ending March 2015 or 88 per cent higher profit year on year, according to financials released last week.

“Marketing investments in our brands of $1 billion [over nine months ending March] increased by 38 per cent compared to last year, which was driven by the increase in sponsorships, including the Red Stripe Premier League and innovations in the packaging formats for both Guinness and Heineken,” indicated a statement prefacing the financials signed by Managing Director Cedric Blair and Chairman Richard Byles.

In fact, Red Stripe actually increased the pace of marketing spend over three months ending March 2015 to $363 million or 50 per cent higher than a year earlier.

Red Stripe core sales are 20 per cent higher over year-earlier levels, which indicates that more Jamaicans are drinking its products. The brewery makes Red Stripe beer, Guinness, Heineken, Malta, and distributes spirits including Johnnie Walker and Smirnoff. UK-based spirits manufacturer Diageo owns the largest stake in Red Stripe at 58 per cent.

Late last year Red Stripe released a new Guinness bottle featuring a foil wrapper, which somewhat peels away with the snap motion of a bottle-opener. Drinkers at the time complained in writing about the ‘two-minute’ inconvenience of peeling away the wrapper. However, this year the company appeared to have addressed those concerns by perforating the edge to facilitate a clean tear-away.

At the same time, Celebrations Brands — a joint venture between Red Stripe and Pepsi-Cola Jamaica — made a $19.8 million profit compared with a $46.6-million loss a year earlier.

— Steven Jackson