Hooch, the brand credited with the creation of the alcopop market
in the UK which is now worth more than £1bn, has been dropped by
Coors Brewers in favour of stablemate Reef. But despite the
disappearance of one of the main brands,...
Greek wine producers are gearing up for an Olympic performance next
year when the eyes of the world turn to Athens for the summer
Games. But while this should help raise awareness of wines, sales
are still likely to be hampered by...
Spanish demographics are changing, with a steady rise in the number
of single person households. This in turn has made consumers more
price conscious than ever before, fuelling growth in both own label
products and discount retailers.
First half like-for-like growth at Safeway, the UK retail group,
was just 0.1 per cent - a far cry from the 9 per cent generated by
Morrisons, the company likely to be the new owner of Safeway in the
near future. A clear indication...
With western markets already mature, spirits producers are
increasingly looking for opportunities elsewhere, although
persuading consumers in Asia or Latin America to switch from
products such as soju and pisco will not be easy, claims...
With EU wine harvests likely to be much lower this year than in
recent times as a result of the summer heat wave, most producing
countries have increased the basic price for wine to compensate for
lower volumes. But not Spain - leaving...
The world's biggest tea producer and the second-largest soft drink
maker have joined forces in a bid to increase sales of the Lipton
ice tea brand worldwide. Already the market leader, brand owner
Unilever hopes a link-up with...
Archer's Eden is the latest premixed drink to target the untapped
wine sector in the UK ready-to-drink market. The product, made in
Italy for Diageo, will be available exclusively in the Asda
supermarket chain.
Exports of Spanish Rioja wine dropped in both volume and value in
the first eight months of the year, although some markets showed
good gains. The US, for example, appears to have swapped French
wines for Spanish following the Iraq...
Are winegrowers in the Rheinland-Pfalz region of Germany receiving
illegal payments to help them consolidate the industry there? The
European Commission clearly thinks so, as it has begun a formal
investigation of the payments.
Premium beers are driving growth in western and eastern Europe, but
they are by no means the only products faring well in the highly
fragmented market, claims a new report from Canadean.
In 2002, the ever evolving UK wine market continued the steady
growth of recent years with sales increasing by 5 per cent,
according to a report from the Canadean Wine Service. Particular to
this growth was the meteoric rise of New...
West European bottled water sales continued to grow last year, even
in mature markets such as Germany, Italy or France, and the hot
summer weather in 2003 is likely to mean a further surge in
consumption. Water coolers, health awareness...
Poland's accession to the EU in May next year will give a major
boost to beer and carbonate sales, a new report from Canadean
predicts. But these sectors are already showing double-digit
increases, helped by low prices and per...
Growth in the Czech packaged beverages market is being driven by
the proliferation of PET bottles, according to a new report from
Canadean. But cans and glass bottles still remain the most popular
format for beer in a country with...
The increasing use of PET packaging is driving sales of bottled
water and fruit juice in Hungary, but despite the improvements,
soft drinks as a whole have a long way to go before they can
challenge the dominance of beer, claims Canadean.
Spirits sales in France have dropped for the last few years as soft
drinks and water become more popular. But new product development
is strong, and sales should start to rise again this year.
Two companies which are fierce rivals in other markets have joined
forces in Italy. Heineken will now produce and distribute
Anheuser-Busch's flagship Budweiser beer there, replacing
SABMiller's Peroni unit as the local...
US beer drinkers are turning away from standard and premium
domestic beers and towards light beer and imported brands,
according to a new report from Canadean. Low calorie light beer is
now the biggest segment of the market, with...
Sales of wine in France have been falling recently as competition
from other drinks sectors heats up and younger consumers opt for
less alcholic beverages. But wine still far outperforms all other
alcoholic drinks in France, and its...
Strong performance in the developing markets, particularly Eastern
Europe, looks set to drive growth in global beer sales in the
four-year forecast period to 2007, according to a recent global
report produced by Euromonitor.
Belgian brewer Interbrew has suffered a setback for plans to
streamline its US operations after the US Court of Appeals refused
to overturn a ruling to prevent the company from merging two of its
distribution operations.
Russia's abiding love affair with vodka is now driving sales of
flavoured alcoholic beverages based on the national drink. Although
still small, the FAB category is just one of several with potential
for good growth in the years...
White spirits such as rum, gin and vodka are undergoing something
of a revival in Italy after years of sluggish growth. But the
success of these clear drinks has not been enough to pull the
Italian spirits market as a whole out of...
Carbonates are still the rulers of the US soft drinks market, but
Americans are turning increasingly to packaged water as a healthier
alternative to the sugary fizzy drinks. And with much of the US
suffering an almost permanent drought,...
Kyndal Spirits - or Whyte and Mackay as the company will now be
known - is to invest £50m in supporting its core brands after
growing criticism of its policies. But is the investment, announced
earlier today by chairman Vivian Imerman,...
Growing levels of disposable income in China have allowed beer
drinkers to move up from standard to premium brands - and given an
opportunity for international players to make their mark in the
world's biggest beer market.
Diageo's decision to change distributors for its Gordon's Gin &
Tonic premix in Russia has angered Happyland, the company which
partnered the UK firm in launching the brand there. But Diageo
claims that Happyland failed...
Thresher, the UK's leading alcoholic drinks retailer, is to begin
offering consumers a range of upmarket ready meals to go with their
wine following the acquisition of Leapingsalmon.com.
Scottish & Newcastle's strategy of expanding its European
business at the same time as selling off its UK pub arm is making
it an attractive takeover target for a number of the world's
biggest brewers, claim market analysts...
With average annual consumption of 222 litres per capita, the UK is
undoubtedly one of the most important soft drinks markets in
western Europe. Innovation, health and convenience were the main
drivers of a market which has grown...
Nestlé Waters North America has been accused of selling nothing
more than simple tap water under its Poland Spring brand and
marketing it as natural spring water - an allegation strongly
denied by the company.
Coca-Cola has refuted a number of allegations of fraud made by a
disgruntled former employee, but has admitted that it doctored the
figures from a trial of its Frozen Coke product at one Burger King
outlet in 2000.
Tullibardine Distillery, closed in 1994, is to open again this year
as part of an ambitious scheme which also includes the creation of
a major retail centre. The new owners have ambitious plans to drive
sales of the Tullibardine brand,...
Metro, Germany's largest food retailer, is the latest to stop
selling beer in small cans and bottles in a bid to avoid the high
cost of implementing a new recycling scheme for such products. Beer
sales in Germany are likely to...
Turkey and Denmark respectively top the global tea and coffee
consumption leagues, according to a new report from Datamonitor,
while the world's most traditional tea-drinking nation, Britain, is
dropping slowly down the list.
Still drinks showed remarkable growth in the UK last year, with a
number of smaller brands in particular performing well. The
healthier image that many of these products have is driving a the
trend away from carbonates and juice,...
Brewers are frequently looking to extend their product ranges via
sub-brands and flavour variants, but Scottish Courage in the UK has
taken this one step further with the launch of a Newcastle Brown
Ale ice cream. A bold move, but...
Lower tourist numbers and a poor summer meant that Spanish beer
volumes were down last year compared to 2001. But price rises
linked to the introduction of the euro and increased consumption of
speciality imported beers helped push...
The thorny issue of the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy
does not only affect the EU's farmers, it is also of vital
importance to the food and drink industry supplied by them. Which
is why the CIAA, which represents food...
Spanish sales of Scotch whisky, liqueurs, gin and brandy all
declined last year as younger consumers turned away from strong
alcoholic drinks with an unfashionable image. Only rum managed to
register a slight increase, according to...
The strength of the US dollar last year meant that exports of
Californian wine declined 7 per cent in volume terms during 2002.
But value sales were up 1 per cent for the year, with sales to the
biggest market, the UK, up 12 per cent.
The three pillars of Interbrew's expansion strategy - investing in
strong local brands, growing its core Stella Artois beer and buying
up regional brewers - have given the Belgian firm a strong and
distinctive identity on the...
Coca-Cola has confirmed rumours in the US trade press that it is to
launch a flavoured milk drink later this summer in a bid to gain a
foothold in the fast-growing nutritional beverage market. But
Choglit, its joint venture brand...
Among the new products highlighted by Mintel in this month's look
at the Global New Products Database are lettuce cake, a
controversial opium energy drink and a new look for Kellogg's
Frosties.
Bertie Ahern, Ireland's prime minister, called on alcohol producers
to act more responsibly this week, urging them not to produce or
market products such as alcopops which are targeted at young
drinkers. Ireland is to introduce...
The German spirits market seems to be in almost terminal decline,
but there could be a ray of hope from FABs, the ready-to-drink
variants of popular spirit brands such as Smirnoff Ice and Bacardi
Rigo. But, as market analysts Canadean...
British companies looking to export to Southern Europe will get a
major boost next month. Food from Britain is organising an export
insight conference focusing on France, Italy, Spain and Portugal,
giving companies all the information...
Poor summer weather in 2002 kept growth in the Italian soft drinks
market to around half that seen in previous years. But, according
to Canadean, the glitch is likely to be temporary, with plenty of
growth expected in the years to...
Austria is not among the most well known wine producing nations in
Europe, but a quick glance at the latest export figures shows that
consumers around the world are becoming increasingly aware of the
wines produced there. For the...