Independent alcohol sales enjoy January boom

By Jo Gilbert

Published: 15 February, 2021

Newly released data shows that January 2021 saw an increase in demand for alcohol from independent businesses, along with an increase in the price tag compared to 2020.

Data from Dojo, which specialises in providing secure payments for small retail businesses as part of the Paymentsense umbrella company, revealed that the UK’s independent wine merchants saw a rise in both sales and bottle prices in January 2021 versus 2020.

Despite an increase in participation of dry January, the data appears to show that Brits are spending more on the alcohol they do purchase, with data taken from 4,000 independent businesses across the UK.

“Typically a time for detox, lockdown fatigue has made us rethink dry January, with more of us finding ways to entertain ourselves with a drink or two on a Zoom call with friends,” Jon Knott, head of customer insights at Dojo said.

“It’s perhaps unsurprising that there is an increase in sales of alcohol, however. Because we may be drinking more frequently, we’re seeing a higher average sale cost per transaction. This means we could be swapping the weekend drinks for more throughout the week.”

Variations were also highlighted across UK regions.

In Ipswich, there was a marked 166% increase in alcoholic spend in January 2021, compared to January 2020, with a jump of average spend per visit jumping from £19 worth of alcohol to £51 in January 2021.

Oxford also saw a big increase of 83% and Southampton saw an increase of 48%.

The top three cities had a combined +297% increase altogether, whereas places such as Reading saw a 59% decrease in alcohol sales, along with Gloucester seeing a 58% fall and Leeds seeing a 23% decline.

London experienced the biggest decrease in spending, likely due to movement away from major cities, with migration back to home towns or rural areas causing other payment areas to spike.

Dojo is part of Paymentsense, a payment provider specialising in helping independent businesses take payments. It currently provides card machines and online payment solutions for over 30k merchants in the hospitality sector across the UK and Northern Ireland.

Rank	Location	2020 average alcohol spend	2021 average alcohol spend	% increase
1	Ipswich	£19	£51	166%
2	Oxford	£22	£40	83%
3	Southampton	£40	£60	48%
4	Nottingham	£60	£68	47%
5	Slough	£17	£24	45%
6	Redhill	£14	£20	41%
7	Brighton	£11	£15	36%
8	Canterbury	£14	£19	32%
9	Torquay	£39	£48	24%
10	Leicester	£11	£14	23%