UK sales of prosecco continued to outpace those of champagne and offset a decline in the still wines sector, according to new figures from retail insights provider IRI.
Prosecco sales now total £356 million (39 million litres in terms of volume), representing growth of 34% in the last year. This compares with a sales increase of 1% for champagne, which reached volume of 10 million litres and value of £251m, and just 0.4% for the wine sector overall.
Analysis of grocery sales data shows that shoppers are buying more supermarket own-label prosecco than any individual branded product. Own-label prosecco claimed 12% of the total market, with the most popular brand – Plaza Centro – taking just 6%. This indicates that sales of prosecco are not being driven by the cachet any one brand brings, but rather the ability to buy a highly drinkable and celebratory beverage at a reasonable price, IRI said.
The continued demand for prosecco has led to a healthy sales increase in the overall sparkling wine category, which grew 15% in the last year to £905m value and 85 million litres volume.
The performance of the wine sector as a whole is static, with value sales growing 0.4% year on year to reach £5.9 billion. Sales of still wine are down 1.8%. White wine remains the UK’s number one choice in the still wine category, representing 47% of total value sales, but its popularity is waning: sales fell 1.6%, compared with a drop of 1.2% for red wine. If it continues to decline faster than red wine, white wine may lose its position as the UK’s favourite in the next few years, IRI warned.
Toby Magill, Head of IRI’s beer, wine and spirits division, said: “Prosecco continues to buck the general trend of stagnant growth that we’re seeing across the wine sector as a whole. Wine had a turbulent time in late 2015, as the supermarkets made range reductions to simplify the shopping experience for customers. This made life much harder for the market as it went into the key Christmas period.
“The highly fragmented nature of the market gives shoppers lots of choice – perhaps too much choice. Wine will continue to fight other sectors for shelf space in stores, and it will struggle to gain the upper hand because it doesn’t have the dominant players that the beer and spirits categories do. To compete more successfully, brands and retailers need to focus on developing and offering a really clear category vision.”
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