UK sparkling wine sales continue to rocket
A record breaking volume of sparkling wine was sold in the UK over Christmas, with over 40 million bottles – a 12% increase – flying off the shelves for the first time during a 12 week period.
This is according to the UK’s Wine and Spirit Trade Association (WSTA’)s latest market report, which reveals that shows stores made £270m in the three month run up to Christmas, a 10% increase on the same time frame in 2015.
A further five million bottles were sold in pubs, bars and restaurants, in the 12 weeks to December 31st, 2016, worth £127 and up by a hefty 37% on last year.
The combined on and off trade sales of sparkling wine was over £45 million bottles, a 54% increase in five years, when during the same period in 2012 sales reached shy of 21 million bottles.
In total 995,000 hectolitres of sparkling wine (excluding Champagne) were sold – the equivalent of 122 million bottles in shops, bars and restaurants during 2016, worth over £1.2 billion.
Prosecco is still one of the key drivers of growth in the market, although sparkling wine sales in general are predicted to rise by 18% between 2016 and 2020, according to Vinexpo’s recently released Global Wine Market report.
“The UK saw the largest ever quarterly sales of sparkling wine at the end of last year but with price rises looming we need government support to ensure that the bubble doesn’t burst when it comes to the British drinkers’ love of fizz,” said Miles Beale, chief executive of the WSTA.