Beer man ready to revise cider house rules

Miles Templeman will consider all options to revive ailing cider maker HP Bulmer

Miles Templeman is already working from his new office at the HP Bulmer site in Hereford even though he was only named as the troubled cider group's chief executive last week and he doesn't formally take over until 1 January.

"I just thought it was worth coming in to meet some of the people," says the 55-year-old former Whitbread brewing boss.

He is also doing a spot of househunting in the area as he plans to buy a second home locally to add to the main Templeman residence in Surrey. "My wife's here and she's out doing that now," he says. "She was very keen that I took this role. She likes Hereford and was keen to have a second home around here. My two sons were very exited about it too, though my daughter didn't seem that bothered."

He will certainly need to keep on top of the job, which has "Herculean task" written all over it. HP Bulmer has been staggering around like the last drunk at a party after a truly terrible year. The Strongbow company issued no fewer than five profits warnings, axed its dividend, parted company with its chief executive and finance director and discovered a black hole in its accounts. Interim results this week will show the hangover has not lifted.

Why take the job then? "My wife felt I had surplus energy," he replies. "I'd built up this portfolio career [CVC Capital, Royal Mail, Shepherd Neame] but we both felt that kind of thing was a few years too early for me. This was the kind of role I'd been looking for."

He is also the kind of appointment the City had been looking for. Mr Templeman, a marketing man to his boots, had built a loyal City following during his 10 years at Whitbread, where he was most latterly head of the brewing division before its sale to Interbrew. The key achievement there was building Stella Artois into the UK's market leading premium lager. With a CV that also includes spells at Threshers, Levi Strauss, Beecham and the Young & Rubicam advertising agency, he clearly knows about brands.

Interestingly, he doesn't particularly like cider. "I'm not a big cider drinker," he admits. "But then I wasn't a big beer drinker either before I went to Whitbread."

He is careful about his plans for Bulmer, which has a stock market value of just £60m despite annual sales of more than £500m. "I haven't yet got a clear view of what the right business strategy is," he says. "Clearly the priority must be building the brands in the UK. There is room for innovation and imagination here even though cider is a mature market."

Cider has taken a pounding from new ready-to-drink tipples such as Bacardi Breezer and Smirnoff Ice, and Mr Templeman is keen to make Bulmer more pro-active. "You can't sit still in this business. You've got to stimulate what is a very stable sector."

He adds that cider is not as small a niche as many people believe. "It's double the size of the stout market and everyone knows what a strong brand Guinness is. I want people to think about Strongbow in the same way."

The mention of Guinness sends a shiver down his spine. Mr Templeman's predecessor Mike Hughes (a former marketing man for the black stuff) seemed to start every other sentence with the words "when I was at Guinness" whilst steering the company on to the rocks.

Trying to "do a Guinness" may be an impossible dream.

Perhaps sensing this, Mr Templeman says the new-look Bulmer will be about more than just new launches. "Product quality could be more consistent and is the customer service up to scratch both with the on-trade [pubs and bars] and the off-trade? [off licences]" he asks.

The international operations, which have been a disaster, will also be scaled back. "My impression is that we've got to get back the international business back to where it's profitable and not a drag on the rest. It can start to grow again later. But it has to be done on a much more manageable, low-capital way."

Costs are likely to be cut, with some analysts saying the business has been run along rather paternal lines, influenced by the Bulmer family who still own 49 per cent of the shares. "It's premature for me to say that," he says carefully. "I don't feel there has been any excessive paternalism. I do believe there is a good organisation here with a lot of good people but it needs to be re-harnessed. There's going to have to be some changes and I believe people here realise that."

Nothing will be sacred and even the use of Johnny Vaughan in the Strongbow advertising campaigns will be reviewed. "I don't know," Mr Templeman says when asked if the TV presenter will be retained. "I've got to look at all these things."

Whether HP Bulmer has a longer term future as an independent company in a sector dominated by giants is open to question. Analysts believe that once Mr Templeman has sorted out the business Bulmer will be sold either to a venture capital group, or a larger drinks company. "Obviously that's a key question but I don't know the answer," he says. "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. But smaller players can exist alongside bigger ones if they operate in a certain way. That's why we should not be trying to do too many other things."

Described as "genial" and "serious" by those who know him, Mr Templeman is not unaware of this own abilities. Many felt he was unlucky to lose out to David Thomas for the Whitbread chief executive job when Peter Jarvis retired some years ago. Asked whether he feels the same way, he says. "I think that's fair. I think I was unlucky. At the time Whitbread had moved very much towards retail and I'd been focussing on the beer business."

How does he feel about it now? "Fine," he insists. "I was disappointed at the time. But the five years I had after that decision were the best of my career."

He should be the right man for Bulmers though. His career path looks perfect with an education that takes in an economics degree at Jesus College, Cambridge and a diploma in marketing at Columbia University in New York. At Young & Rubicam he worked on the Daz washing powder account before taking on Ribena and Lucozade at Beecham. At Levi's he worked on the early stages of the famous Nick Kamen launderette campaign. "I was there during the gestation period of that campaign and I worked on the whole 501 plan. I felt that was the right time to go."

If he can sprinkle just a little of the marketing magic on Bulmer, which he added to names like Stella Artois, investors will keep him in cider for life. He may even have learned to like it by then.

Brew master

Title: Chief executive, HP Bulmer

Age: 55

Pay: £275,000 (approx), plus bonuses and share options

Education: Haberdashers Askes, Elstree, Jesus College, Cambridge (MA economics), Columbia University, New York.

Career: 1970-73 Young and Rubicam, 1973-78 Beecham Foods (marketing manager), 1978-85 Levi Strauss (UK marketing director), 1985-88 Threshers (managing director) 1988-2001 Whitbread (group marketing director 1988-90, managing director of beer company 1990-2001).

Interests: Tennis, golf and family. "I like a busy social life."