Traditional wine sales remain under pressure, but pockets of double-digit growth are emerging across RTDs, alternative formats and occasion-led drinking. Kathleen Willcox examines the data to find out where drinks brands can still win.
Bad news first: wine as we know it is not selling well. Mid- to top-tier terroir-driven wine from well-known regions, made and packaged in the manner to which so many of us are accustomed and attached, is still struggling.
But there is plenty of good news to go around. The much-maligned "younger generations" are suddenly thirsty for the sauce, especially in spirits and RTD form. Smaller, portable formats of wine and spirits are selling well, as are wine RTDs and wine cocktails.
"Consumers are not abandoning alcohol; they are becoming more intentional about when, where and why they drink," says Mark Chaplin, president, commercial sales at Southern Glazer's Wine & Spirits.
Southern Glazer's recently analysed its own proprietary data, including insights from more than 15 million customer transactions and visibility across 46 US markets, alongside third-party data from NielsenIQ (NIQ), Numerator and others, for a report on growth opportunities in the ...