The Morning Advertiser’s (The MA) Drinks List 2025, based on data from CGA, showed the overall spirits category saw a 4.5% drop in volume and 10.1% decrease in value last year.
Of all the segments measured, gin saw some of the biggest losses in the category.
- See The MA’s Drinks List 2025 here
Gordons, Beefeater, Bombay Sapphire, Hendricks, Whitley Neill and Tanqueray all made the list, though each brand saw falls in volume and value in 2024.
Meanwhile, value sales of Tequila were up 3.2% during the same period.
The whisky segment also struggled, with a downturn in volume for almost each brand measured, but the category still fared better than gin. It was a similar story for vodka and rum.
Owner of Cheshire Cat Pubs & Inns Tim Bird told The MA the flavoured gin bubble may have burst, but London Dry gins were still growing in popularity, particularly at country pubs.
He said: “There is nothing more suited to a quintessential English country pub than a proper G&T with lemon zest.
Experimenting less
“People are experimenting less and favouring traditional and contemporary London Dry gins, returning to the classic brands such as Tanqueray, which has seen the biggest growth [for us].
“Flavoured Gins are still selling but it is the bigger brands such as Brockman’s or Chase that stand out.”
Bird added whisky, particularly English and Irish, were in “ascendancy”, with rum not far behind.
Though gin remains the big seller by a “country mile”, he explained: “Whisky has seen good growth, up 28% like for like, but remains only 26.4% of the current gin category in terms of turnover. Rum too has grown by 15.3% like for like.”
While Tequila may have grown at town or city venues, Bird, who won in the Best Drinks Offer category at the Publican Awards last month, said this was not the case for country venues.
When it comes to keeping the gin category alive in the on-trade, the operator advised local brands would be key moving forward.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Stonegate told The MA gin sales accounted for £1 in every £5 spent at its sites, making it the third-largest subcategory within spirits for the pubco.
The spokesperson continued: “Additionally, gin is the base ingredient for one in 10 of our cocktails.
Post-lockdown high
“Among cocktail drinkers, the Gin Spritz remains the third most popular, with 29% finding it appealing, and interest in Flavoured Gin Spritz has grown to 26%, up four percentage points year-on-year. These stats reaffirm gin’s continued relevance in the on-trade market.”
Other categories where Stonegate, the UK’s largest pubco, has seen growth included cream liqueurs, Tequila, golden/dark rum, Scotch Whisky, and imported whiskey.
Wine and Spirit Trade Association (WSTA) chief executive Miles Beale told The MA’s Lock In podcast team the spirits category overall was “feeling the squeeze”, with a 10% drop in volume and 5% downturn in value last year following a “post-lockdown high”.
Beale detailed gin had gained a 9% share of the spirits category across the on-trade in 2015, increasing to 22% in 2019 and falling back to 15.5% in 2024.
He continued: “Traditional gin is still doing quite well, a lot better than it was ten years ago.
“The flavoured gin was the real puff at the end of the peak, which has since faded away, and we are seeing that with flavoured vodka as well.”
While other categories had seen growth more recently, the chief executive didn’t think any would come to the fore to replace gin: “Gin overall is not doing what it once was, but it has not fallen back to where it was 10 years ago.
“The truth is consumers are actively trying to drink less, so they are likely to go out and drink something that is low or no alcohol and they are going out less, so it is a sort of cumulative effect.”
