Sparkling offers glimmer of light for UK alcohol, as global volume growth slows

By Jo Gilbert

Published: 08 June, 2023

India, Mexico and Brazil will take over from the US and China as the volume drivers of growth for alcohol around the world, new figures have revealed. Meanwhile, the US and China remain key to the industry’s value growth – and the UK continues its trend of wine stagnation.

According to new data and forecasts from IWSR Drinks Market Analysis, global beverage alcohol is forecast to grow amidst a challenging political and economic landscape over the next few years.

By the end of 2023, this growth is projected to deliver over US$ 21.6bn to the global economy. However, from there, future volume growth will be more subdued at +1% volume CAGR 2022-2027, amid a shift away from the US and China as the key volume drivers for the global industry.

Read more: Insights: (Some) reasons to be cheerful

As requested by Harpers, the UK view shows a continued slump for wine, but with premium faring better for standard and entry level wines.

On the subject of still wine in the UK, Patrick Fisher, market analyst at the IWSR, said: “Ongoing inflationary pressures caused by higher material and logistics costs mean that price rises are being implemented, with a negative impact on demand. Cost-of-living pressures are impacting affordability too, with the on-trade likely to suffer more due to its higher mark-ups… and with people increasingly investing in the at-home occasion, or with more of a focus on specific occasions. The current success of RTDs, plus changing packaging formats, should help to drive an increase in both canned wines and wine-based RTD beverages.”

As the figures below show, things are a little more optimistic for sparkling wine in the UK.

While the cost-of-living pressures will force some trading down, Champagne had a particularly good harvest in 2022. The UK should, therefore, see better fortunes for the category in the coming years, along with ‘plenty of optimism’ for English sparkling wines.

Top line category in the UK (all price bands)