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Waitrose sees ‘boom’ in recent Tequila sales

18 October 2024 By Arabella Mileham

UK retailer Waitrose has seen a boom in its sales of Tequila, it has reported, with sales up 86% compared to last year.

The retailer, which tipped the South American agave drink as a future winner back in 2022, said that customers were enjoying the drink in simpler serves, over ice or just with tonic, which indicates that the spirit is now standing on its own as a sipping drink, as well as being a base for popular cocktails.

Spirits buyer John Vine noted that lockdown had “turned many of us into at home mixologists”, and the retailer had responded by increasing its range of Tequila in recent years. In the last year alone, it has extended the Tequila range by 10% – and Tequila and mezcal now account for 5% of the spirits range on Waitrose’s shelves, “allowing customers to easily recreate their favourite tipples in the comfort of their own living room,” Vine said.

“In response to the booming demand for Tequila, Waitrose is offering more variety and versatility in our Tequila range, allowing customers to utilise the tipple in a variety of different formats. This includes everything from a simple Tequila and tonic (T&T); ready to drink cocktails such as a Paloma or Margarita; as well as offering customers more aged, finer varieties like Anejos and Reposados which can be neatly sipped over ice.”

Waitrose reported that week-on-week Tequila-based sales at the retailer were also up, with its new VIVIR Tequila Reposado rising 38%, and the ready-to drink MOTH Margarita rising 35%.

Tequila started to make serious waves in the off-trade in lockdown, with Waitrose reporting sales up 127% between 2019 and 2021 and internet searches for Tequila-based spirits on Waitrose.com rising 400% in 2022, db reported.

The rise of celebrity products from the likes of Kendall Jenner, George Clooney, Justin Timberlake, Rita Ora and Sex and the City actor Chris Noth, helped to raise awareness of the category at a time when producers started to employ different cask finishes and ageing techniques to created added variety and quality. This was coupled with the appreciation of agave-based spirits’ versatility for both cocktails (particularly for un-aged blanco or lightly aged reposado Tequila) and more mature añejo sipping Tequila. Interest had predated the pandemic however, with data from the IWSR in 2019 showing Tequila to be the second-fastest growing spirits category, behind gin, up 9% year-on-year.