Average UK price of bottle of wine moving upwards

The average price of a bottle of wine in the UK is moving steadily upwards, as the supermarket giants concentrate on expanding their premium ranges, according to importer and distriubtor Concha y Toro UK.  

Since December 2016, there has been a “significant step change” in the price of wine in the UK, according to the company’s research, with IRI data showing a 17 pence increase in price in the past 24 weeks.   This makes  a bottle of wine now costs an average of £5.45 in the off-trade, up from £5.28 over the same period last year.  

According to Simon Doyle, general manager of Concha y Toro UK, this is largely down to the supermarkets stocking a wider range of premium wines.   Retailers have been slimlining their ranges over the past couple of years, reducing the number of wines priced below £6, while introducing more products costing around £8 and above.    

“We are seeing value growth across all channels in the medium term,” Doyle told Drinks Business. “And while there has been a lot of rationalization in the supermarkets, the range architecture is now probably better than it has ever been – less is more.”  

He added that all channels are experiencing price growth acceleration, which he attributed to the fact that post-Brexit, many wine companies had hedged against changes in exchange rates up to the end of 2016 but not beyond, hence the big jump after December.  

“But price growth has been sustained after that, so whereas shoppers often trade up on wine for Christmas and trade down again afterwards, we have seen that prices are being sustained, and that’s because there hasn’t just been price increases on existing products, but also an introduction of new wines at higher prices.”  

And it is far easier, he said, for retailers to introduce new wines at higher prices than try to increase the cost of existing products, though he conceded there has been widespread price increases on private label wines.  

Another reason for the increase in average wine prices is a change by the retailers in their approach to promotions, with discounts being dropped substantially.  

“Not only has the number of weeks that wines are on deals fallen, but the discount is more likely to be 10 – 20% rather than 20% or more.”   “I don’t think there will be another time when we see such an enormous shift from discounting to every day low prices; there has been a major move away from half-price led sales.”