France

Beer looks set to continue its strong progression over the forecast period. Despite the success of the French football team during the FIFA World Cup in 2018, which led to strong volume sales for beer as local consumers enjoyed drinking while ...

Sales of cider remained stable or experienced limited decline when the product area of flavoured cider was still dynamic. However, the fad of rosé and flavoured cider strongly declined in 2018, depriving the category of its growth driver. There is ...

Alcoholic drinks in France recorded a fairly lacklustre performance in 2018. Total volume sales remained stagnant, which was disappointing for producers in comparison with the expectations of the previous year. The market benefited from an ...

While 2017 heralded a possible improvement for overall volume sales of spirits, players were less confident in 2018 about the category’s outlook. On-trade volume sales were hindered by tough social movements, including the “yellow jackets” at the end...

Wine continued to decline in total volume terms in 2018, as consumers were progressively “drinking less but better quality”. In addition to the continuous collapse of the previously dynamic niche of flavoured wine, still light grape wine was largely ...

Despite economic headwinds in some markets, the toys and games industry continues to see growth globally. However, the continuing adoption of smart devices and digital entertainment at an ever earlier age puts a spotlight on the need for seamless ...

Whilst frequent replacement lenses and conventional lenses saw current value declines in 2019, French consumers’ use of daily disposable lenses increased. Daily disposable lenses offer more practicality, convenience and time-saving compared with ...

In 2019, eyewear saw the strongest current value growth for several years. Although contact lenses and solutions saw a decline, this was offset by the good performance of spectacles, with sunglasses seeing just a slight increase. Despite falling ...

Sales of spectacles continued to rise in 2019, as they are no longer considered to be only for solving vision problems. They have also become a true fashion accessory of their own, allowing wearers to express their personality and style. More daring ...

Sales of sunglasses are weather-dependent, and recorded modest growth in 2019 due to an inclement pre-summer season. Bad weather deterred consumers from purchasing sunglasses during the period March to June, when high-end and premium sales are ...

In 2019, bags and luggage benefited from a rise in purchases by both locals and international visitors, as the number of tourists increased. After a challenging year in 2016, marked by a dip in tourist numbers following terrorist attacks, bags and ...

Despite early signs of stability, towards the end of 2018 fine jewellery suffered from the yellow vests nationwide social movement, which protested against President Macron’s reforms. They demanded lower fuel taxes, a reintroduction of the solidarity...

Personal accessories continued to see slow but steady current value growth in 2019, with increases seen in all categories, despite challenges. The biggest challenge across categories was the yellow vests nationwide social movement, which protested ...

Watches recorded sluggish current value growth in 2019. Whilst growth in mechanical watches held up, quartz digital watches continued to see a strong decline. Despite technical arguments favouring the superior precision of quartz mechanism, other ...

The start of the school year in September sees nearly half of sales of the entire writing instruments category. Therefore, most product innovations and promotions in the mass segment take place at the end of the summer. These product innovations ...

Although the introduction of standardised plain packaging on cigarettes failed to have the impact that the government was hoping for with regards to reducing smoking prevalence in the country in 2017, a further increase in tax on tobacco products in ...

Cigars, cigarillos and smoking tobacco was also adversely impacted by tax hikes in early 2018, which are predicted to continue to 2020. While current value growth for the overall category continued to surge, retail volume sales were strongly impacted...

The performance of tobacco in France was negatively impacted by a number of factors in 2018. Stronger current value growth was linked to huge increases in unit prices for cigarettes, cigars and cigarillos and smoking tobacco due to successive tax ...

The second increase in taxes on cigarettes and smoking tobacco in March 2018, with price hikes set to continue to 2020, encouraged many smokers to adopt much cheaper e-vapour products as complements or even as total substitutes. This led to ...

Toys and games continued to record good overall retail value growth in 2018, albeit at a much slower rate than in the previous year. Growth was entirely driven by video games, as the Nintendo Switch, launched in 2017, outsold all other toys and games...