Lion extends keg return in line with extension to Greater Sydney lockdown

With the Greater Sydney lockdown extended until the end of August, Lion has extended the keg returns process to any venues who have kegs reaching their best before date within this period. Lion more than a thousand of its customers late last week to advise them of the news.

The brewer will collect unused kegs and offer customers a credit for kegs which meet all of the below eligibility criteria:

Best before date of 31 August 2021 or earlier
Kegs are full, untapped and with dust caps intact
Purchased direct from Lion from 1 June-25 June.

Credits will be processed and appear on the customer’s account within 24 hours. Lion Connect will make contact to organise collection of the kegs shortly after lodging the claim. Any untapped kegs with a best before date from 1 September onwards should be placed in the cool room. Lion’s Beer System Shutdown Procedure is available here.

During the first national lockdown last year, on the morning 23 March 2020, Lion was announced it would credit all on-premise venues for their unused, full, capped kegs. Lion says, “This was the largest reverse logistics exercise we’ve ever undertaken – and totalled about $30m in credits to venues. This also meant about 11 million schooners sadly never got to see a schooner glass!”

On 23 March this year, Lion initiated National Local Day, a nationwide promotion where 40,000 beers were poured to support local pubs.

To extend the shelf life of kegs, where possible keep the cool room running and place all kegs into your cool room.

Once the NSW Government announces lock down restrictions to ease and venues are able to reopen, from that date, customers will have one month to contact Lion with the required information to raise a claim, i.e. If lockdown finishes 30 August, venues have until 30 September to contact Lion with their keg details and claim their credit.

To process a keg credit and return, please contact Lion Connect on 13 15 13 or email via LionConnect.Enquiries@lionco.com. Businesses will need to provide the following information: