“Significant” trading down in wine

The recent Mintel Report on wine, Wine Ireland 2011, suggests that despite the recession, consumers will not trade down but neither will they trade up.

However this view is not reflected by the Irish Wine Association Chairman and Marketing Director at the Findlater Wine & Spirits Group Philip Robinson.

He told Drinks Industry Ireland, “Looking over last two years, the average price of a bottle of wine has dropped from €9.20 to €7.70 and of this €1.50 reduction, only 50 cent was the duty reduction at the end of 2009. So there’s clear evidence that people have traded down over the last couple of years”.

Indeed, he claims that there has been a significant trading down so that the price has dropped dramatically of late.
He also questioned whether people will be trading up any time soon.

“As long as the economy remains challenging, we’re going to see limited trading-up opportunities but there are still opportunities to trade up in the off-trade through seasonal or celebrational days,” he said.