£5bn growth opportunity for alcoholic drinks

By Nikkie Sutton

- Last updated on GMT

Premium league: spirits are driving growth in the alcohol category
Premium league: spirits are driving growth in the alcohol category
The alcoholic drinks category will see a rise in value of £5.2bn to £46.7bn in 2022, according to historic and predictive data, revealed in a new report.

The Diageo Drinks Report 2019 ​also revealed six overall consumer global trends. The first of these was ‘urban centricity’ where more consumers are now living in a city.

Secondly, ‘one-world connection’ highlights the rise of consumers connecting digitally, disrupting traditional advertising channels for brands.

Everyone now has faster access to knowledge than ever before, which Diageo called the ‘advanced living’ trend.

The fourth trend Diageo outlined was consumers are also increasingly placing more emphasis on the value they derive from an experience, an ever-growing trend. They are more demanding on each and every occasion, and luxury experiences are now growing faster than luxury goods.

Consumer trends

Another trend is that information is now more available than ever before and consumers are now able to share content more widely and at a greater pace.

The sixth trend was consumers demanding convenience and, with that, their expectation of convenience rises.

Premiumisation leads the way for consumers as they are drinking less but spending more and when it comes to spirits, in 2018 the category grew by 7.4% in value (to £11bn).

The report also outlined trends from the past 10 years. In 2012, the trade saw the rise of flavour-led malts and craft beer began to gain pace.

Wine took centre stage in 2013 when sparkling, Prosecco and rosé all grew massively. Looking at 2014, pre-batched cocktails entered the market alongside a rise in demand for low-ABV products.

Looking back

Fever-Tree was listed on the UK stock market and Seedlip launched in 2015. Following this, in 2016, the gin boom really started to gain momentum and cocktails became bigger than Champagne.

In 2017, flavoured gin was launched in the UK and last year, the Pornstar Martini was named the UK’s number one cocktail alongside a rise of plastic awareness.

Diageo head of GB on-trade category development Sarah McCarthy said: “It’s no secret that consumer drinking habits are changing, with a clear shift in recent years towards premiumisation and a focus on provenance and heritage.

“As society changes and greater demand is put on premium, connected experiences, consumer repertoires have become broader and it is no longer appropriate to look at drinks sub-categories in isolation.”

Related topics Spirits & Cocktails

Related news