UK Champagne sales on the up

Champagne shipments to the UK are up 16.3% to 35.5 million bottles from 2009, the Champagne Bureau announced at its annual tasting in London this week.

The UK is still the leading export market for Champagne, followed by the US at 17m bottles and Germany at 13.3m.

Elsewhere, Champagne sales volumes in China were up 90% on 2009, to 1.1 million bottles, and up 88% in Russia to just over one million bottles.

Speaking at the tasting, Champagne producer Bruno Paillard, president of the Commission Communication & Appellation for the CIVC, told the drinks business: “Sales are up more than expected in the UK, but it compares with the low base of 2009.

"Sales have evened out to a more normal level in 2010, and we’re optimistic about 2011 as shipments are moving in a good direction.”

On the importance of China and its 90% rise in sales, Paillard said: "China is clearly an important market, but it’s still a very new market – it’s not yet ingrained in Chinese consumption habits for people to drink Champagne, so sales are progressing rapidly percentage wise, but still with fairly low volumes.”

Speaking of the proposed re-inclusion of certain villages into Champagne, Paillard was adamant that the Champagne region will not be expanded.

“We have no plans at all to expand the Champagne region," he said. "Inside the borders, some villages that were excluded from the 1927 map are going to be reintegrated, but it’s a long process that started in the ‘90s, and we won’t see the results until at least 2020. Whatever happens, in terms of boarders, it won’t expand at all.”

Click here to watch our full video interview with Bruno Paillard

Lucy Shaw, 17.03.2011