Take-home sales of posh own-label lagers are booming, as shoppers lap up the growing quality credentials of retailer lines.
Value sales of ‘premium own-label lager’ climbed 74.7% last year, while volumes surged 92.4%, according to Worldpanel by Numerator data [52 w/e 28 December 2025].
By contrast, premium branded lagers have declined at a faster rate than the wider beer category. They’re down 2.8% in value, while volumes have slid 5.2%.
Premium own-label lagers are on average 30p more expensive than their branded counterparts. However, that gap is narrowing. Average price per litre has fallen by 9.2% in own label, while branded prices have risen 2.6%.
Retailers are also stepping up their focus on own-label lager to excite shoppers.
M&S works with partner breweries in Spain, Germany and the Czech Republic to produce its own-label lagers. The retailer recently enlisted design agency Thirst to revamp packs, highlighting regional differences in style and its country-of-origin sourcing.
“Premium own-label is something that we’ve seen growing and our strategy is to be able to offer own-label beers brewed at source that showcase the different regional differences in lagers across the continent,” said M&S beer and cider buyer Rob Grimes.
The strategy appears to be paying off. M&S own-label lager sales are up 12% by volume in the past year, compared with just 2.3% volume growth in branded lager. Sales of its own-label Spanish and German lagers, meanwhile, are up 50% and 40% respectively.
Across the total market, branded premium lager still far outsells own label. Own-label volumes hit 2.5 million litres last year, compared with branded premium’s 316.9 million.
Competing with big brands was tough, Grimes admitted. “We know these brands are super important, and will always be,” he said.
However, M&S’s brewed-at-source lagers offered a point of difference, he insisted. “There is a subsection of people that care a little bit more about where the stuff is from.”
M&S plans to introduce a 12-pack of its Spanish Lager in May.
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