Wine sales suffer as average spend dips

By Jo Gilbert

Published: 27 July, 2016

New data suggests that still wine is becoming a casualty of economic recovery as UK households spent 1.3% less in the take-home market compared to last year.

In the year to June 19, 2016, the average household spent £243.91 on still wine from retailers compared to £247.16 the previous year.

The decline in sales of still wine was even steeper when the data looked at the average spend per shopping trip.

The most recent data from Kantar Worldpanel showed that households spent £9.33 per transaction on still wine compared to £9.54, marking a YoY change of -2.2%.

"Interesting dynamics are currently at play within the take-home wine market. The off-trade remains of massive importance to the sector (84.3% of serves in the off-trade vs 15.7% in the on-trade) but growth has slowed for still wine as a result of recent dips in penetration and average spend per household," said Andy Crossan, Kantar's consumer insight director.

However, Prosecco has offered a lifeline in the sparkling category, with sales of wine - including sparkling and Champagne - only dipping 0.1% in households' yearly spend from £262.32 in 2014/2015 to £262.08 in 2015/2016.

With sales of still, sparkling and champagne combined, the wine category saw less of a decline in sales per transaction, with -1.7% change in average spend, (compared to the 2.2% dip in sales in still wine) from £9.81 in 2014/2015 to £9.65 in 2015/2016.

Crossan added: "At a total wine level, the picture is better as the market has been supported by the continued dramatic growth of Prosecco, which has seen penetration double inside two years, from 12.9% of GB households in 2014, to 25.8% in 2016."

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