Wine sales in Italy’s large-scale retail channel increased by 8.1% in volume terms, to 22 million litres, in the first four months of 2021, new data has shown.
In the same period, wine sales were up 20% in value terms, according to the IRI research for Vinitaly, which also highlighted strong growth in sparkling wines and moderate growth in wine.
The best performing wines in 2021 are those featuring a specific designation of origin, while Prosecco remains the sparkling wine champion, according to the data.
E-commerce wine sales also made a three-digit increase in the first four months of the year, compared to the corresponding period last year.
'Soft Landing'
However, IRI’s Business Insight Director, Virgilio Romano, warned large-scale retail needs to "prepare for a soft landing", as record sales during the pandemic period will tend to normalise with the reopening of the HoReCa channel.
He expects 2021 to be “transition year” on the return to normality, with sales likely to remain at a good level, “provided that wineries and retailers know how to maximise the opportunities deriving from e-commerce and regionalism.”
Retail Response
For its part, the large-scale retail sector seems to be paying attention to these trends.
Carrefour’s Gianmaria Politi commented that a number of new wine labels, previously destined for the HoReCa channel, have arrived on supermarket shelves.
In addition, white wine sales rose by more than 10%, a higher growth rate than red wine, while no less than six sparkling wines are in the top 10 of sales of Carrefour’s private label wines.
Coop Italia’s Alessandro Masetti highlighted the positive performance of its private label wines, with the 'Assieme’ wine seeing double-digit growth and 'Fior Fiore' performing positively.
However, he acknowledged the difficulty for further growth of wine in the retail channel during 2021.
Commenting, Mike Baggio from the Italian Wine Federation (Federvini) said that he expects an increase of the offer of medium-high end wines on shelves leading, in turn, to higher average prices. He highlighted the performance of new entry Prosecco Doc Rosè, which already accounts for 10% of all Prosecco Doc volumes.
© 2021 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Branislav Pekic. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine
