The drinks sector, both globally and in the UK, is facing a continuous march towards premiumisation, delegates to last week’s Spirits Summit were told.
Mark Meek, CEO of the International Wine and Spirits Record (IWSR) said that while the sector was seeking to increase value on products, another key trend was category blur from promiscuous consumers.
“We’re seeing more and more of this - consumers, particularly millennials, are not tied to one category or brand, they’ll swap around, even in one evening”, he told the event, which is organised by M&C’s sister title, the Publican’s Morning Advertiser.
He called on the sector to do more to define the concept of “craft” as well, and said a leading trend, certainly within the US market, was the increasing rise of independent producers, which was putting pressure on established brands. “Millennials want independent products, they want to be seen as unique, it’s about giving them something different.”
Health was also playing a major part in consumer choices and brands needed to cater for this: “The fastest growing segment for Heineken is in the low alcohol, or no-alcohol beer. The whole concept of living well is a key demographic.”
The fastest growing spirits categories for the UK market over the next five years will be US whiskey, vodka, rum and gin, he told delegates. “Rum is particularly doing well, there’s a real opportunity for it and we’re hearing more people talking about it.”
Meanwhile, he said the IWSR forecast for beer was less positive, with the category predicted to continue to decline by 11.7m cases over the next five years. That compared with an increase in spirits of 1.7m cases, wine by 2.4m cases and cider outpacing the pack with a rise of 5.8m cases by 2020.
When it comes to brands in the spirit sector, he said the situation was quite fluid, and while the current leading brands in the UK included Smirnoff, Captain Morgan and Russian Standard, if you looked back five years, those names were largely different, with Bells and Glen’s Vodka riding high.
