GLOBAL: Premium spirits set for 'connoisseur' boost - research

The premium-and-above spirits category is set to outpace lower-priced sectors over the next five years as wealthy, older consumers in the West seek out high-value products, a new study shows.

Premium-and-above spirits volumes will grow by about 38m nine-litre cases from last year to 2017, according to the IWSR Forecast Report 2012-2017, announced late last week. This will continue a trend unveiled earlier this month, when IWSR found the premium-and-above Champagne and spirits market added 52m cases between 2001 and last year.

Low-priced spirits, increasingly squeezed by rising taxes, will grow at the slowest rate, 0.9% annually until 2017, the report said. Value and standard brands will grow annually at 3.2% and 3% respectively over the same period. Overall global spirits consumption is expected to grow annually at 2.2% to 2017, the study found.

“The continued growth of premium spirits can partly be attributed to rich economies seeing a greying group of wealthy individuals increasingly searching out niche, high-value products that show a certain connoisseurship,” the report says. “Another factor is the growing ‘new elite’ in emerging markets looking for badges of status, such as in Russia and China.”

The report also notes that the loss of traditional practices in emerging nations has dented the production of illegal spirits and pushed consumers towards the registered alcohol market.

An ISWR report in August said global Travel Retail sales increased by 7% last year driven by Asia-Pacific.