“Posh own-label” brings growth and diversity to UK retail

The category dubbed “posh own-label” has become one of the most dynamic sectors in the UK off-trade.

Sainsbury’s senior wine buyer Julian Dyer told the drinks business: “It’s genuinely the fastest growing part of our range and has grown by just over a third in the last 52 weeks.”

The boom in sales reflects the expansion of the retailer’s Taste the Difference range, which has increased by 25 since the start of the year to total 70 skus today.

Other “posh own-label” lines include Tesco Finest (complete with its mysterious “*”); Morrisons’ Best, and Asda’s Extra-Special.

Tesco Finest* now runs to over 100 lines including a Picpoul de Pinet, Falanghina and Teroldego, and senior product development manager Laura Jewell MW said: “My team is constantly looking at potential wines, but we don’t want to be too obscure.”

She also told db that the Finest* range was “seeing significant growth”.

Writing in the August edition of the magazine as part of a major focus on the challenges and opportunities in UK wine retailing, Tom Bruce-Gardyne pointed out that “posh own-label” is proving a good way of getting wines with provenance and typicity at an affordable price onto supermarket shelves.

However, he also noted as part of his detailed analysis of the sector that there is a concern that tags such as “Finest” and “Best” imply there are lesser versions of the wines for consumers to trade up from – when in most cases, there aren’t.

For more on “posh own-label” see August’s edition of the drinks business.