wine

Fortified wine sales have plummeted over the past year amid resurgent still and sparkling sales, leaving only Buckfast in volume and value growth.

The past 12 months has seen significant declines for eight of the UK’s nine biggest fortified wine brands, including Croft (down 7.8% to £15m), Dow’s (down 8.8% to £8.5m) and Martini (down 4.5% to £14.1m), exclusive data reveals. Own-label fortified wine value sales were flat (+0.4%), but volumes fell 1.1% [IRI 52 w/e 3 February 2018].

The category had “not been getting a lot of attention,” IRI head of BWS Toby Magill told The Grocer. “People don’t really know how or when to drink it.”

Fortified wines had also likely faced challenges with distribution and ranging, he added. “Wines in general have been improving in performance and bouncing back, so fortified could be losing out.”

Sparkling has been given more and more space and in still wine there has been the rise of new world varieties - somebody has to lose out because the aisles aren’t getting any bigger.”

Buckfast, meanwhile, had benefited from growing consumer confidence, said Stewart Wilson, sales manager at JD Chandler & Co, which manages distribution of the drink, adding there were indications the brand was gaining in the south with convenience retailers, independents and symbol groups. It added £16m (32.9%) to its value over the past 12 months [IRI].

Revenues at JD Chandler were up 3.1% to £43.2m for the year ending 31 March 2017.

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