In the US, Miller is an economy beer, with 80% of sales to blue-collar drinkers, but this side of the Atlantic the brand is set for a makeover, nudging it upmarket.

Richmond Marketing is to oversee the beer's transformation into a premium lager; it has hired 20 staff to implement "substantial plans" to drive its image upmarket, according to Retail Intelligence magazine.

Richmond takes on the sales and distribution licence as well as the marketing contract for Miller on 1 May, having won this choice contract from Heineken Beamish in January. Miller's owner, SABMiller, is to end brewing of the beer in Ireland this month and source brewing elsewhere in Europe.

The deal with Richmond brings a 'third force' into the Irish beer sector, which has been dominated by Diageo and Beamish/Crawford.  Richmond also has sales and distribution contracts for Red Bull, Volvic mineral water and Kopparberg cider.

Miller sells 200,000 hectolitres – 35.2 million pints – a year in the Republic and sales are worth around €164m.

But some industry observers think Miller will face hurdles taking the brand upmarket in this climate of recession.

When Bulmer's owner C&C set out to conquer the British cider market in summer 2006 with the Magner's brand, things went phenomenally well at first, until bad weather and a worsening economy quickly put paid to its success.

The Miller revamp plan includes focusing on the on-trade (pub) market to grow its share of the draught beer category. In Britain, Miller licence owners, Scottish and Newcastle, have taken Miller out of off-licences there entirely.