Britain’s gin boom is drawing to a close in the UK’s supermarkets as vodka picks up the slack.
That’s the finding from The Grocer’s Britain’s Biggest Alcohol Brands report this week, which showed many of the UK’s biggest gin brands have suffered massive declines. Conversely, the biggest vodka brands have made large gains.
Gordon’s, the UK’s biggest gin brand, has shed 15% (£81m) of its value. Rival Bombay, meanwhile, is down 34.2% (£45.1m) to £86.6m and flavoured gin specialist Whitley Neill has fallen by 29.3% (£24.7m) to £59.6m [NielsenIQ 52 w/e 30 April 2022].
Conversely, vodka brands Smirnoff and JJ Whitley were the two fastest-growing spirit brands in absolute value over the past year, adding £22m (3.9%) and £17m (25.1%) respectively [NielsenIQ].
Much of the growth in vodka came from flavoured lines. Smirnoff’s top-selling SKUs this year, for instance, were its Raspberry Crush flavour, which has racked up £20m in its first year on the market, and its Mango & Passionfruit twist, worth £5.4m after less than a year.
JJ Whitley’s core vodka, meanwhile, lost £4.9m in sales, but its Passionfruit, Gold-filtered, Blood Orange, Blue Raspberry and Raspberry flavours added a combined £14.9m [NielsenIQ].
The decline of Whitley Neill and other gins “can in part be attributed to shoppers becoming more experimental with their drinks choices, seeking out new products and categories to try,” said James Stocker, marketing director at Whitley Neill owner Halewood.
Lauren Priestley, off-trade head of category development at Diageo – which owns Gordon’s and Smirnoff – attributed much of vodka’s success to the cocktails trend, leading to “increased share of spirits across the on and off-trade”.
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