Alcoholic Drinks in Western Europe

Delivery

This report comes in PPT.

Key findings

Western Europe an increasingly mature market in some categories

Western Europe houses the second biggest alcoholic drinks market (behind only Asia Pacific), and also boasts the highest sales of wine and cider/perry among the regions. However, with Portugal (1), Italy (2), France (4) and Greece (5) all among the top five wine-drinking countries in per capita terms, and the UK and Ireland first and second for cider/perry, there is also a certain element of maturity in some categories across Western Europe.

HW concerns driving demand for low-ABV and non-alcoholic products

The UK government’s “Draught Relief” reduces the duty on draught alcoholic products sold in on-trade venues, such as pubs. Under “Draught Relief”, there is a reduced rate of duty on draught alcoholic products under 8.5% ABV that are packaged in containers of at least 20 litres.

Draught Relief offers reduced duty rates in the on-trade

Health and wellness is an ongoing trend in alcoholic drinks in much of Western Europe, with some consumers keen to switch to zero-alcohol versions of popular alcoholic drinks and others wanting to cut their alcohol intake, opting for products with lower ABVs. Players will continue to tap into this potential with a steady stream of new low- or no-alcohol product launches.

On-trade will continue its recovery in the coming years

The on-trade will enjoy a better performance in volume sales terms over the forecast period than the off-trade. However, this is because it is generally still recovering from the massive hit it took due to COVID-19 in 2020. On-trade sales are also still expected to be below their pre-pandemic levels by the end of 2023-2028.