The cost of wine in UK supermarkets rose by £0.17 between December 2016 and May 2017, according to IRI data.
Though the figures do not account for wine sales figures of Lidl and Aldi, they evidence a growing inclination among supermarket chains to retail wine SKUs at £7 or £8 price points, while the number of wines sold for less than £6 continues to fall.
The average price for an off-trade bottle of wine in the UK over the timeframe examined is £5.45 – up from £5.28 for mid-July 2016 to mid-September 2016.
Value Increase
On this matter, general manager of Concha y Toro UK, Simon Doyle, told The Drinks Business, "We are seeing value growth across all channels in the medium term […] and while there has been a lot of rationalisation in the supermarkets, the range architecture is now probably better than it has ever been – less is more.
“But, price growth has been sustained after that – so, whereas shoppers often trade up on wine for Christmas and then trade down again afterwards, we have seen that prices are being sustained, and that’s because there hasn’t just been price increases on existing products, but also an introduction of new wines at higher prices.”
Doyle added that in the UK market it is “easier to sell a new product at a higher price than put up the price on an existing product."
Earlier this year, Britain’s Wine and Spirits Trade Association (WSTA) has said that the price of an average bottle of wine could increase by £0.53 (about 10%), caused by the impacts of Brexit, alcohol duties, and inflation.
© 2017 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Peter Donnelly. Click subscribe to sign up for ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
