In its Wine Market Report Plus, market intelligence provider Key Note estimates that the UK consumer spent a record amount on wine in 2009, an amount that accounted for 20% of all household spending on drinks and 28% of the alcohol market. As a nation, the British are now classed as wine drinkers, as well as beer drinkers.
The UK market for wine has experienced steady growth over the review period from 2005 to 2009, with a peak of 5.6% growth in 2007 and 1.3% growth in 2009 despite the recession. While beer continues to be the larger market, the long-term trend is towards drinking wine, almost all of which has to be imported. In 2009, the UK wine market is estimated to be worth £11.65bn, having grown in value by 13.4% over the last five years.
In November 2009, Key Note commissioned a consumer survey examining attitudes and buying behaviour when ‘buying wine’ (if they bought it at all). The research revealed a number of findings:
ere was a drop in buying behaviour for sparkling wine/Champagne, from 29% of adults in 2007 to 22% in 2009, possibly induced by the onset of recession. -The biggest change was the apparent fall in the purchase of own-label wine (from 32% to 25%). Conversely, respondents to the 2009 survey were more adventurous than in 2007, with 36% saying they ‘try out new wines quite often’ (against 25% two years earlier), though this was counterbalanced by a steady response to buying ‘the same wine most of the time’.
Prospects for future growth in value remain relatively good, with wine increasingly being seen as the most civilised way to drink alcohol, with a trend to buying more expensive wines.
Key Note is predicting a double-digit increase in the market by value between 2010 and 2014, with value growth exceeding volume growth as consumers trade up to a better average quality of wine.
*Source: Key Note
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