Pessimism Reigns as UK Wine Market Travails Continue - Just-Drinks Wine Survey Reveals Downbeat Mood
BROMSGROVE, England, June 1, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --
Levels of pessimism in the wine trade in the UK hit new heights last week, as a survey of operators in the country's off-trade indicated a bleak landscape.
The survey, commissioned by just-drinks, discovered that 49% of responders had negative feelings about the year ahead for the wine market in the UK; a big jump compared to just 25% last year. Richard Woodard, who compiled the just-drinks 'State of the Nation' report from the survey results, blamed a "combination of negative factors" pointing to "the fragility of the economic recovery as the UK slips officially into a double-dip recession, ever-increasing levels of excise duty and tough pricing policies from extremely powerful multiple retailers."
The survey results were presented during a briefing and Q&A hosted by just-drinks managing editor Olly Wehring at last week's London International Wine Fair. Joining Wehring was a panel of industry experts, including James Lousada, European general manager at Accolade Wines, Concha y Toro's commercial director for the UK, Simon Doyle, and Su Birch, CEO of Wines of South Africa.
Although the survey highlights that there will be tough times ahead for the UK wine market for the coming year, Woodard expressed that "the UK remains a huge wine market with more diversity than many of it's European neighbours".
"Responses this year were the most pessimistic since we started the annual survey six years ago," added Wehring. "Despite this, there remain pockets of growth and potential to succeed in the UK, a wine market that remains exciting despite its challenges."
A full copy of the report, recording of the briefing, and pdf of the slides, is available free of charge to just-drinks subscribers by clicking here.
Aboutjust-drinks.com
Established in 1999, just-drinks is a leading online resource for global beverage industry, publishing around 20 news articles, analysis features and insights every working day. Under the direction of managing editor Olly Wehring, its experienced team of journalists, consultants and analysts provide a unique and comprehensive blend of reports and interpretation of the beverage industry, including key events, trends, interviews and research that is delivered to over 92,000 business executives per month.
Via its web site, webinars and in-depth management briefings just-drinks offers insight into soft drinks, wine, beer, liqueur and whiskies industry developments and supply-chain trends, brand and corporate strategies, CONSULT research platform, enterprise technologies such as PLM and ERP. Furthermore, just-drinks supplies news on manufacturing developments and how the drinking industry retailers perform around the world.
For details of how just-drinks is helping decision makers make decisions, visit http://www.just-drinks.com.
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