Whisky sales decrease by 43.5% compared with 2019

07-Mar-2022 - Last updated on 07-Mar-2022 at 10:27 GMT

Whisky has not seen the same success as vodka: total sales of Whisky were down 43.5% in January 2022 compared to 2019 according to CGA data (Credit: Getty/ vm)

Related tags Whisky Cga Spirits

Total sales of Whisky were down 43.5% in January 2022 when compared with the same period in 2019, data from CGA has revealed.

Whisky’s moving annual total (MAT) sales value fell from £1,017.7m to £574.9m compared to two years ago, while total sales of 9 litre cases decreased by 46%, dropping from 875,006m to 472,379m.

CGA senior client manager Tom Quinn said: “Whisky has not quite seen the same success as vodka, down 43.5% in value over the long-term MAT view and down 7.7% in the latest quarter.

Green shoots of optimism

“Within the category itself there are green shoots of optimism, from the standard imported whisky category in particular which has been in slight growth (0.4%) in the latest 12 weeks, stealing +3.5ppts value share primarily from standard blended whisky, which has lost -3.2ppts.”

Sales of 9 litre cases of blended whisky were down 52.3%, the biggest drop of all the subcategories, when compared with two years ago, having dropped from 354,145m to 169,071m.

Imported whisky saw the smallest drop in sales and value compared to two years ago, with sales of 9 litre cases decreasing from 418,247m to 252,703m (39.6%) and a drop from £499.4m to £312.8m (37.4%) in value.

Malt whisky saw sales of 9 litre cases decrease by just over half (50.7%), falling from 102,615m to 50,605m with a similar loss in value of 50.5%, decreasing from £162.1m to £80.2m.

Total sales of 9 litre cases for all standard whisky decreased by 46.4% from 619,538m to 332,039m while premium whisky saw sales fall from 188,408m to 103,511 (45.1%) and sales of super premium whisky, fell by 45.1%, from 67,060m to 36,829m.

Value of whisky

In terms of value, standard whisky saw a decrease of 42.8%, falling from £627.2m to £358.7m, while the value of premium whisky dropped from £268.5m to £149.8m (44.2%) and super premium whisky saw a decrease in value of 45.6%, from £122m to £66.3m.

However, total value sales of whisky across the spirits category increased by 9.9% overall.

Quinn added: “Standard imported whisky now accounts for 42.8% value share of total whisky sales. So two in every £5 spent on whiskey in the on-trade, and standard whisky 62.5% value share, which accounts for six in every £10 spent on whisky in the on-trade.”