Supermarkets “close” to selling by style

Supermarkets could benefit from changing their wine merchandising to organising it by style rather than country, according to Dan Jago, category director for Tesco’s BWS department.

Jago made the claim at last week’s Wine & Spirit Trade Association’s forum on lower alcohol in London.

As a panel member at the event, Jago stated during the Q&A session: “The more I see the way people behave around [buying] wines, I think we’re getting close to the point where we should be merchandising by style rather than by country.

"It would be easier if we did this [merchandising] as, this is light and refreshing, this is big and rich. We must be brave and take a large step rather than doing it by small steps and not taking any risks.”

The forum at the Mayfair Exhibition Centre also witnessed UK supermarket representatives asking that lower alcohol wines – despite a true definition of ‘lower alcohol wine’ being still undetermined – should be treated as mainstream products rather than molly-coddling them and treating them as an esoteric, minority style.

Julian Dyer, senior buyer at Sainsbury’s, told the forum’s audience: “Let’s concentrate on mainstream products and give people a sensible message about wine,” adding that two years ago Sainsbury’s introduced 9%-10% wines that were sold by featuring the lower alcohol level prominently on the labels. However, he said: “It didn’t work because we were selling them by putting function over form (ie what they tasted like).”

Jago agreed with Dyer, saying that in supermarkets, the products need to be mainstream rather than hidden away. In doing so he highlighted consumers’ misconceptions of ‘lower alcohol’ wines. “Lower alcohol wines have something of a leper quality to them," he said. "Customers regard them as naff and/or they think they don’t taste nice,” adding that the main question customers ask is why can’t the lower alcohol wines be available in their favourite brands.

The three supermarket representatives who spoke at the forum concurred that the popularity of lower alcohol wines such as Pinot Grigio and Californian rosé, mostly white Zinfandel, were rising. However, Arabella Woodrow MW of Morrisons said that when she conducts consumer tastings, “The first question is not ‘What’s the cost?’ but ‘What’s the alcohol?" However, she questioned whether the consumers bought Pinot Grigio and Californian rosé on their flavour profile or because of the lower alcohol, adding that she suspected it was the former.

Several issues concerning the off-trade selling lower alcohol wines were discussed and debated at the event, including the hurdles regarding the definition of the term ‘lower alcohol’ which was seen as vital so that producers can accurately adhere to labelling guidelines and retailers understand how to market and merchandise the products correctly.

Jago added: “The language is a minefield, it needs to be clarified and we need to work on what to say, we need a common use of the language, so we know what we are allowed to call things.”

The provision of tax breaks were also discussed as a possible means to encourage producers to be more careful with their alcohol levels. “I would like to see major owners bringing down alcohol levels, and, much as it may harm winemakers’ egos, lots of wines are bought by the familiarity of the product and not by the authenticity of the product.”

The forum concluded with a tasting of 67 lower alcohol wines, 20 of which are already available in the UK off-trade.

Jane Parkinson, 05.10.2009