UK women feed strong growth in wine sales
love affair for this popular drink continues.
In five years wine sales grew by a substantial 30 per cent, hitting £7.6 billion (€11bn) in 2004 from an estimated £5.8 billion.
And according to analysts Mintel, the market will leap by the same percentage again, to reach almost £10 billion in 2009.
"The 'Bridget Jones' generation of working women with time and money to spare for luxuries such as wine, have undoubtedly played a significant part in boosting sales," says James McCoy at Mintel.
The high-end price increases have also helped sustain market growth, they claim.
In the UK today, as many as seven in ten (69%) women drink wine, compared to just three in five (62%) men. Although men are just as likely as women to drink wine at home, in pubs, clubs and restaurants, a mere one in five (21%) men drink white wine, compared to some 36% of women and while just one in four (24%) men opt for red wine, as many as three in ten (31%) women do so.
For men, draught lager is the most popular choice (34%), followed by canned and bottled lager (31%). Meanwhile, just one in seven (14%) women drink either one of these, making lager less than half as popular as wine among women when outside the home.
When it comes to off-trade sales, French wines continue to be 'driven out' by the New World. In the off-trade market, the New World plays host to nine of the top ten brands.
In 1999 just 17 per cent of people drunk Australian wine, but by 2004 this had risen to some three in ten (31 per cent). Although slightly less in demand than Australian wines, the popularity of South African wines has also risen, increasing from 11 per cent to 16 per cent over the same period and Californian wines have increased from 9 per cent to 15 per cent.
Old World wines have not faired well. In 1999 almost three in ten (29 per cent) adults claimed to drink French wines (considerably more than the 17 per cent who drank Australian), but by 2004 this had fallen to 26 per cent of people. German wines have also suffered, falling from 18 per cent to 12 per cent over the same period - the biggest drop in popularity of all the wines.
"While classic Old World wines are revered by connoisseurs, New World wines are better represented within the mid-to-lower price sectors and are ultimately more accessible to the masses," says the Mintel analyst.
Indeed the success of the New World and branded companies, in additionto the popular demand arising from this, is likely to increase the levelof high quality, lower value wines available on the market, and brandingwill continue to shape the future of the wine market, he adds.
In the UK, red and rosé wines account for the majority of market sales and have outperformed white wines in volume terms over the past five years.
Between 1999 and 2004 volume sales for red and rosé wines increased by some 32 per cent, compared to a 21 per cent increase in white wine volume sales.
"Sales of red wine have benefited from numerous medical studies, whichpromote the various health-giving properties of red wine. But the bigsuccess story of the last couple of years is the rapid expansion of therosé sector, prompted no doubt by the scorching summer of 2003 and ahigh profile 'Drink Pink' campaign mounted by the iconic Mateus Rosébrand," explains James McCoy.
