Christmas Round-up

Sparkling wines enjoyed a Christmas of double-digit growth, while for beer it was more Bah, Humbug!

Unusually, Christmas has been slightly disappointing for the alcohol sector. As a general rule, alcoholic drinks sales grow faster over Christmas than they do over the whole year. This year, however, due to a poor performance by beer and a strong overall performance from wine, Christmas-on-Christmas growth was less than annual growth.

At Christmas consumers’ needs change and different sectors become more dominant. Spirits, for example, are worth 28% of the overall alcohol market – but at Christmas they take over a third of sales. As a result, wine and beer have a smaller share of the alcohol market over Christmas than they normally take. And, of course, sparkling and fortified wine also receive a seasonal boost. Sparkling wine in particular had a good Christmas, achieving double-digit growth.

Among the retailers, Asda had the strongest performance, notably through sales of beer. Most other retailers struggled with this category; Tesco grew through spirits and wine sales, while Sainsbury’s declined (against a good Christmas last year) due to declining beer and spirits sales.

The top 10 most popular brands were largely unchanged, with no new entries and the top five holding the same position as last year. Carling lost ground, as did Tesco Finest Wine, while Smirnoff Red Vodka and E&J Gallo Wine rose up the ladder.  db February 2006