At home consumption in Austria boosts sales of domestic wine, but fails to compensate for on-trade losses

The Austrian wine industry’s sales to the hospitality sector slumped by a third during 2020, thanks to the closure of the industry for much of the year.  

However, Austrian wine did see an increase in home consumption and in the multiple grocery sector, though these increases were not enough to compensate for the loss of on-trade sales.

According to the Austrian Wine Marketing Board, consumers increased their at home consumption of wine by 17% volume and 18% in value, and this was reflected in the multiple grocery sector where sales surged by 16% in volume and 17% in value, also gaining a record share of the revenue, accounting for three quarters (75%) of all sales.  

During 2019, hospitality and events accounted for over half – 58% - of all wine consumption in Austria, but during 2020 the hospitality sector was closed entirely for two months, while the second lockdown which was implemented from 3rd November 2020 is likely to end by Easter this year, resulting in the period of closure lasting for a third of a year.  

This is reflected in the corresponding sales figures, with sales from January to December 2020 in the on trade wholesale channel plunging by 33% compared to the previous 12 months.  

“Austria’s innkeepers have tried, and are still trying, their very best to keep their businesses ticking over despite forced closure,” said AWMB CEO Chris Yorke.

During the pandemic, the proportion of households buying exclusively Austrian wine grew to 47.3% - the highest rate since 1997.   Meanwhile, Austria’s multiple grocery retailers also benefited from the increase in sales.

According to Nielsen, 16.4% more Austrian wine was sold in this channel during 2020, with this being distributed evenly across red, white and rose wines, By comparison, international wine sales only saw their volumes increase by 3.9%. And the increased sales of Austrian wine were also matched by the average price per bottle going up to €5.39 (compared to €5.38 in 2019. )

With the closure of physical stores, there was not surprisingly a strong shift towards online sales, with the number of online buyers up by nearly half (48%) between October 2019 and October 2020, with an average spend of €60 per order.  

As for exports, full year figures are not yet available, but are expected to be down to around 62m litres, down from 2019’s 63.5m litres. The value of exports are also expected to be down, from 2019’s €183m to €175m during 2020.

Photography: Joss Woodhead