45% of men now choose wine – IWA report

The Irish Wine Association (IWA) has completed its review of the Irish wine market in 2010, a year which brought some respite to an Irish wine industry struggling to recover from the declining sales of recent years.

Part of this respite was due to the 20 per cent reduction in the excise rate in Budget 2010 which led to the repatriation of a significant proportion of sales previously lost to Northern Ireland. A more detailed examination of the market can be found in the Irish Wine Association’s review of the Irish Wine Market 2010.

It shows:

• white table wine is now the most popular with Irish consumers
• wine accounted for 18.9 per cent of the alcoholic beverage market, up from
  a 12.3 per cent  share in 2000
• 45 per cent of men now choose wine, a two per cent increase on last year
• 79 per cent of wine sales lie in the off-licence sector and the majority of these sales are dominated by the multiple
• independent off-licences, at 21 per cent, experienced a substantial drop (five per cent) in their share of the market since last year.

In 2010, wine prices decreased by 10 to 14 per cent due to the excise reduction and deep discounting by the industry to keep prices in line with the multiples.

The IWA will use this report to demonstrate to Government officials and other stakeholders the difficulties that the wine industry faces in Ireland and it will form the backbone of the IWA’s pre-Budget strategy.