In 2016, for the first time in several decades, the value of the global cigarettes category as a proportion of total tobacco sales, fell below 90% – to 89.8% to be exact. As a telling milestone it is not perhaps an especially spectacular one but it is nonetheless a central datapoint from the newly released Euromonitor TB17 system which says as much about the key trends impacting on the tobacco industry today as any other.
Intoxicating technological advancements will radicalise drinking rituals at home while streamlining the on-trade experience. From holistic ecosystems providing infinite customisation and personalisation options in mixing, purchasing and sharing to accessible home-brewing devices and from apps seamlessly bridging the on and off-trades to initiatives focusing on nano – blending , preserving and reviewing , beer goggles are turning into virtual reality headsets.
Remaining in negative territory for the second year running, the global alcoholic drinks market declined 0.2% in 2016. A basically stagnant top line growth figure is, however, a marked improvement on the bleak performance of the previous year – primarily a result of considerably reduced rates of decline in Asia Pacific and Eastern Europe.
The top five brewers increased their share of world beer volumes by seven percentage points between 2011 and 2016, achieving a 53% share by the end of this period. Consolidation was driven by the acquisitive expansion of the leading players, with Heineken buying out FEMSA in Mexico in 2010, SABMiller acquiring Australia’s Foster’s Group in 2011, and A-B InBev purchasing Grupo Modelo in 2013.
Britain’s Imperial Brands has formed a joint venture with state-owned China National Tobacco (CNTC) following in the footsteps of PMI and BAT pursuing a piece of the world’s largest cigarette market with volume sales in 2015 of 2.5 trillion cigarettes despite a fall of 2.4% compared with the previous year according to Euromonitor International.
“Heat-not-burn” tobacco products work by heating, rather than burning tobacco. After some of these products were introduced in test markets such as Italy and Japan, Phillip Morris International launched an aggressive expansion strategy with its iQOS (I Quit Ordinary Smoking) device.
According to the newly released data, in 2016 the global alcoholic drinks market remained inebriated at the proverbial wheel, staying in negative territory for a second year running and following hot on the hills of its first slump in more than a decade back in 2015.
From early 2017, Finland is planning two legislative changes in the alcohol and confectionery markets. The country will remove the so-called sweet tax for confectionery and ice cream, and the Finnish government is planning a wider renewal of alcohol legislation including several changes in the drinking laws.
These are the 25 countries that drink the most wine. Hover over the blue squares to see total volume of wine consumption. Switch to the Still Red Wine tab to see how much of that total wine consumption is red wine. Zoom in on the map to explore denser regions like Europe and switch between current and forecast data to see how these percentages will change in the future.
Euromonitor International’s research on the global alcoholic drinks industry has identified key trends shaping the consumption, sales and marketing of alcoholic drinks.