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WSTA highlights +17% rise in RTD sales

This figure now sits at £704m, while volume sales also saw a notable increase rising +12% year on year, according to the fresh data sourced from NIQ (representing the 52-week period up to 27 December 2025).

The category – which includes spirits and mixers; canned cocktails; and hard seltzers – saw 44% of its sales come from consumers shifting their spend from buying spirits to RTDs, according to the WSTA’s analysis.

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The spirits category as a whole saw a slight sales fall in the off-trade, dropping £40m for the year period up to 3 January 2026.

Charting recent consumer behavioural changes, the WSTA detailed that Covid saw a rise in at-home cocktail which coincided with a rise in spirits sales. The cost of living challenges of recent years that followed, however, spurred a rise in the more affordable RTD category.

Reflecting upon the findings from the trade body’s new report, WSTA chief executive Miles Beale said: “It is welcome news to see a bright spot in the sales data.

“The UK spirits sector has been experiencing plummeting sales following the biggest duty increase in almost 50 years in August 2023.

“The Government’s typically disappointing and shortsighted policy to keep raising alcohol tax in line with growing inflation is delivering less revenue to the Treasury and continues to prolong the doom loop.

“The WSTA’s new Sip 2 report shows a shift in shoppers spending from traditional alcohol categories to RTDs, as on-the-go drinks in smaller packages prove increasingly popular to hard pressed consumers.

“Our innovative distillers need support to help them to continue to revitalise the sector and deliver growth, investment and boost UK jobs.”

The ‘Sip 2: A Look at Evolving Wine and Spirit Consumption’ report is available for WSTA members here.

• Spirits
• cocktails
• WSTA
• data
• off-trade
• retail
• supermarkets
• RTDs
• sales data