Alcoholic Drinks

The post-pandemic euphoria of 2021, which witnessed a healthy total volume growth in alcoholic drinks in France, was short-lived: indeed, overall volume sales of alcoholic drinks were showing somewhat flat growth in 2022. This stems from the impact…

Sales of alcoholic drinks plummeted through the on-trade in 2020 following the outbreak of COVID-19. However, after further disruption in the early part of the year, the reopening of foodservice outlets at the end of April set the path to an…

By the end of 2021 and during the first months of 2022, Spain had to restore some COVID-19 restrictions, due to the emergence of the more contagious Omicron variant of the virus. These restrictions focused on the use of masks outdoors, and the…

At first sight, sales of beer in France look flat. However, within this situation we see some contrasted results. The bad news: without great surprise, off-trade sales of beer suddenly waned in 2022 due to the recovery of on-trade, following the end…

Following the trend seen across alcoholic drinks in 2022, the performance of beer was highly polarised. Indeed, following two consecutive years of strong growth through the off-trade channel, off-trade sales declined in 2022. This was mostly due to a…

During 2022, the Spanish beer category maintained total volume growth, and sales nearly returned to the level seen in 2019. This made it one of the only alcoholic drinks categories that, in general, recovered from the impact of the pandemic. The…

Trends as noted in other categories are also of a similar note in cider/perry. 2022 witnessed another strong drop in off-trade, which was slightly offset by the strong recovery of on-sales in creperies (Breton crêpe restaurants) where the bulk of…

Demand for cider/perry continued to grow in 2022, both in the on-trade and off-trade. This was due to several factors. Firstly, the relatively low penetration of these products, especially in modern grocery retailing, presents wide margins for…

The total volume increase in cider/perry in 2022 was driven by significant growth in the on-trade. Since cider is so strongly linked to social occasions, the lifting of the COVID-19 restrictions in early 2022, the reopening of on-trade…

RTDs posted slight growth in total volume terms in 2022, in continuation to an already good performance in 2021. 2022 benefitted from a more festive ambient than seen in 2020 to early 2021 due to the pandemic lockdowns and restrictions, along with…

As with most other alcoholic drinks categories, RTDs registered a polarised performance in 2022. On one hand, following two straight years of solid growth, volume sales through the off-trade declined. On the other hand, on-trade demand continued to…

RTDs saw growth in both total volume and current value terms in 2022, bringing sales back to levels above those seen in 2019. Volume growth was partly the result of the rebound in on-trade sales, which was facilitated by the complete removal of…

While 2021 was an atypical year in sales of spirits, leading to small positive growth, volume sales fell into a small negative decline in 2022 – as per the structure of the category pre-pandemic. However, this hides another atypical trend – namely…

Spirits was the category to suffer the most from Italy’s COVID-19 related restrictions. Indeed, unlike wine and beer, a significant share of on-trade sales of spirits traditionally concern non-dining establishments such as nightclubs. These…

Even though total volume sales of spirits increased in 2022, volumes did not return to the pre-pandemic level. The supply chain crisis and rising production costs, such as raw materials and energy, which were exacerbated by the war in Ukraine, had a…

In terms of total volume sales, 2022 was not the best vintage for wine in France. Rather, the category slightly waned as per the structural trend seen pre-pandemic, with a strong switch back from off-trade to on-trade. This contrasts with 2021,…

Wine registered a slight decline in total volume terms in 2022, albeit with contrasting fortunes for the on-trade and off-trade channels. On one hand, the complete lifting of COVID-19 restrictions supported a strong recovery of sales through…

In 2022, sales of wine in Spain grew both in total volume and current value terms compared with the previous year. Most categories experienced growth, with sherry being the only exception. Growth was primarily driven by the lifting of all…

In 2022, on-trade alcoholic drinks sales posted positive total volume growth, while off-trade sales saw much lower growth rates. The COVID-19 pandemic strongly impacted sales of alcoholic drinks in Denmark in 2020, with all categories posting a sharp…

In 2022, alcoholic drinks in Finland experienced an overall decline in total volume sales. While this decline affected some categories, there was significant movement within different segments. For example, cider faced challenges due to its maturity…