Scotland’s top off-trade wine by sales value

Rise and fall

Campo Viejo: Top European wine and showing major growth.
Campo Viejo: Top European wine and showing major growth.
IS Scotland a wine-loving country? Well, of all the categories we have studied in our most valuable off-trade brands analysis wine is the largest.
It didn’t have the best of years last year, according to the Nielsen findings, with total light wine category sales down by 1%.
But if that’s a touch disappointing it does appear to be fairly stable. Look at the results for the different wine brands and they look anything but stable. Of course, much of the wine sold in Scotland is not part of a clearly recognised brand. But wine brands are very important in c-stores. It’s interesting to see that the top 15 brands are split almost half and half between those that have added sales and those who have seen sales fall. And, while the market overall is down just 1%, in most cases the increases or declines on branded wine sales are actually quite sharp.
Hardys at the top of the table increased sales by 11% over the year.
Brand owner Accolade Wines recently said it had broken all its records in the UK in 12-week period to 3 January, selling 1.5 million bottles more at Christmas 2014 than in the same period in 2013.
The firm says the average annual spend per buyer on Australian wine last year was £95.77.
Accolade’s Echo Falls brand was also up, by 6%, and its Kumala wines also beat the Scottish off-trade wine performance overall with sales up 1%. But its Banrock Station wines were down by 11%.
Some wine brands showed very substantial increases in sales in Scottish take-home in 2014.
Sales of Barefoot wines were up by 79%, from £4m in 2013 to more than £7.2m last year.
Pernod Ricard-owned Rioja brand Camp Viejo is now by far the biggest-selling European wine brand in Scottish take home. The Spanish brand added 72% to its 2013 sales to move to almost £5.6m sales.
The two main Chilean brands had very different sales outcomes in Scottish take-home over the year.
Isla Negra remains the biggest Chilean brand but sales dipped below £10m after a 2% slip over the 12 months.
In contrast, the second-biggest Chilean brand Concha y Toro saw sales soar by 46% to reach almost £7.9m.
And there were good performances too by New Zealand brand Villa Maria, which entered the wine brands top 15 after a massive 63% improvement in sales.
McGuigan wine sales were up 12% to more than £9m.
Blossom Hill wine sales in Scottish take-home were down 6%. Gallo Family Vineyards dropped by 4%.
Pernod Ricard’s Jacob’s Creek slipped back 3%.
Lindeman’s was down by 10%. And Wolf Blass dropped 17%.

Scotland’s top off-trade wine by sales value :

Rank

Brand

MAT £000s to w/e 04.01.14

MAT £000s to /we 03.01.15

% Change

Total light wine (excl British)

497,813

491,248

-1

1

Hardys

24,585

27,338

11

2

Blossom Hill

20,171

19,013

-6

3

Echo Falls

13,762

14,530

6

4

Gallo Family Vineyards

12,070

11,533

-4

5

Isla Negra

10,019

9,864

-2

6

McGuigan

8,093

9,077

12

7

Kumala

8,930

9,057

1

8

Concha y Toro

5,393

7,869

46

9

Jacob’s Creek

8,089

7,865

-3

10

Lindeman’s

8,161

7,333

-10

11

Barefoot

4,026

7,212

79

12

Wolf Blass

8,600

7,155

-17

13

Campo Viejo

3,236

5,561

72

14

Banrock Station

5,366

4,802

-11

15

Villa Maria

2,865

4,682

63