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Gin sales smash records

The statistics, from its latest market report, which is yet to be published and covers the year to June 2018, it said that Brits purchased gin in shops, supermarkets, pubs and restaurants. This means an equivalent 14.4M extra bottles were sold in the UK, worth an extra £516M, compared to last year.

The WSTA also revealed that British gin exports and sales have smashed a record breaking £2bn in a year.

This means that the value of UK gin sales combined with exports has doubled in five years. In 2013, the total value of gin sales UK and exports reached just over £1bn.

The WSTA also said that the summer of 2018 reached record highs for gin with sales, both home and abroad, peaking at £2.2bn.

Gin, it said, is outperforming any other spirit in terms of growth of sales in the UK and now accounts for 68% of value growth in the spirits sector.

However, the WSTA has issued a note of concern about the next budget as Chancellor Philip Hammond is planning a 3.4% duty rise in line with inflation.

“Gin has proved itself to be just the tonic for the Government’s ambitions to grow exports of premium British products. On top of that the gin boom in the UK has allowed our talented and innovative British distillers to invest and grow their businesses creating new jobs and boosting the British economy,” said Miles Beale chief executive of the WSTA.

“If gin continues to grow at this rate there’s no reason why the industry can’t set its sights higher, we could be talking about a £3bn gin empire by the end of 2020.”

WSTA said that for every 70cl bottle of gin at 40% ABV £8.05 goes straight to the Treasury. Spirits paid £3.4bn in duty in 2017/18, accounting for 30% of all alcohol duty income.

Britain now boasts 315 distilleries in the UK – more than double the number that were operating across the country five years ago, it said.

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