Gin sales almost double in two years

By Lisa Riley

Published: 29 March, 2019

The UK bought a record breaking 73 million bottles of gin last year across the on and off-trade (Nielsen/CGA), with off-trade sales peaking in the run up to Mother's Day.

Between January and March 2017, 6.4 million bottles of gin were sold in the off-trade, with 41% sold in March, according to Nielsen.

“We feel Gin is so popular for Mother’s Day as people like to give their mothers something they really want,” said Marcus Pickering, co-founder of Pickering’s Gin. “After years of giving flowers and chocolates we have discovered what mum’s really want is Gin.”

Meanwhile, the WSTA’s Market Report released this week shows total gin sales hit £2 billion for the first time last year, a record amount. If exports are added in, gin was worth over £2.7 billion for the whole of 2018.

Miles Beale, WSTA chief executive, said the “truly staggering rise in gin sales shows that British gin is gaining more and more fans by the day. And we fully expect to see sales rise again in March this year, just as they did last year”.

The latest expression of the UK's fastest growing spirit - pink gin - was one of the 'go to' gifts for Mother’s Day, he added.

“It's high time gin's new status and reputation were celebrated and supported by government, which should be offering more support for British gin exports and a less taxing duty regime, both of which fail to support our entrepreneurial and innovative distillers.”

The latest gin stats follows export data released earlier this week by the Food and Drink Federation which highlighted how gin and whisky continue to fly the flag - each growing in both value and volume, bucking the trend of overall UK food and drinks exports which slowed to a crawl in 2018.

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