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Rolling update: wine sales soar at the Co-operative over Christmas

Published:  13 January, 2014

Convenience retailer the Co-operative saw sales of own brand Prosecco jump by 875% over the Christmas period, with wine sales surging ahead by 10.2%.

Overall sparkling wine sales grew by 69% in volume in the three weeks ending January 4, 2014.

Although Prosecco led the way, sales of the classic Grande Marque Champagnes were up by one third in the week before Christmas, led by Veuve Cliquot and Bollinger NV.

Throughout the festive period, wine sales grew by 10.2% year-on-year for the four weeks ending January 4.

Its bestselling fine wines included: Chateau Sénéjac, own-label Châteauneuf-du-Pape  and Chablis. Other fine wines such as Sancerre, Pouilly-Fuissé, Pouilly-Fumé, Barolo, Côtes du Rhône and Rioja Reserva also enjoyed double-digit growth.

Simon Cairns, category trading manager for wine at the Co-operative Food, said: "Grand Marque Champagnes, Prosecco and finer wines were the stand-out performers for the Co-operative Food this Christmas. Our own-brand Prosecco, which was recently awarded a Which? magazine best buy, put in a stellar performance driven by a great promotion - sales were up nearly 900% on last year.

"Our festive promotional package, which provided our shoppers with a great range of money-saving offers on their favourite wines and sparklers, really helped to drive sales."

Last week, the Co-operative released its festive trading update, saying  in the 13 weeks to January 4, like-for-like sales grew by 1% on the same period last year, representing an improvement on the 03% growth achieved in 2013. Sales in the three weeks to January 4 were particularly strong, with like-for-likes up 3.5% in this period, and core convenience sales up 5.4% in the same period.

Back in November, the Co-operative said that Prosecco was outselling Cava and was now its biggest selling sparkling wine.

Cairns added: "As well as being the stand-out sparkling performer in 2013, sales of Prosecco have doubled this year at the Co-operative. This excellent performance means that our overall sparkling wine category sales are up 12% year-on-year."

  

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