Chapel Down is facing a fight to hold onto its title as the leading English sparkling winemaker after a miserable year in grocery.
The Kent supplier was leapfrogged by Nyetimber after seeing value sales slide 6.1% on volumes down 9.7% earlier this year, The Grocer’s Top Products 2024 report has revealed [NIQ 52 w/e 7 September].
Nyetimber, meanwhile, grew value 19.9% on volumes up 18.4%.
However, Chapel Down has since retained the top spot, posting sales of £11.5m versus Nyetimber at £11.4m, data supplied by the winemaker showed [NIQ 52 we 30 November].
The two brands are the ninth and tenth top-selling sparkling wines in UK grocery.
When still wine sales are accounted for, Chapel Down remained the largest English winemaker by value – worth £13.5m [NIQ 52 we 7 September]. Nyetimber makes exclusively sparkling wine.
Chapel Down has today announced James Pennefather will be joining the company in February 2025, replacing Andrew Carter in the chief executive role. Carter is leaving next year to join Yorkshire brewer Timothy Taylor’s.
Read more: Has the fizz gone out of Chapel Down?
“Chapel Down continues to be the power brand in the rapidly growing English wine category, with the highest brand awareness and the most extensive distribution network,” said a spokesman for the winemaker. “The latest NIQ data reaffirms our market leadership in the off-trade. With strong momentum in pre-Christmas trading, we are confident in maintaining our position for the full year.”
Nyetimber declined to comment.
The decline in grocery caps a disappointing 2024 for Chapel Down, which downgraded its full-year net sales revenue forecast in October, also taking itself off the market after failing to find a buyer.
“One-off challenges” in the off-trade were cited as a major contributor to an 11% slide in sales for Chapel Down in the six months to the end of June.
In September, Carter told The Grocer the supplier had been reluctant to engage in pre-Christmas price wars last December.
“We took the decision that we didn’t want to drop any deeper on our promotional pricing, so we came into January carrying more stock than expected,” he said.
Coupled with “a general softening of rate of sale” and the lapping of last year’s coronation-driven sales, it meant off-trade value sales fell 36% in the first six months of the year.
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