just-drinks authors and correspondents

Biography

A trained newspaper journalist, Richard Woodard was editor of the drinks trade magazine Wine & Spirit International from 2000 to 2005, responsible for writing, commissioning and producing a broad range of business-related content relevant to the international drinks industry.

He now works freelance and is a regular contributor to just-drinks.com, Decanter, The Spirits Business, The Drinks Business and Imbibe, among others.

Columns by Richard Woodard

Comment - Spirits - A Word with Woodard

Resident columnist and spirits know-it-all Richard Woodard provides his monthly take on the latest in the global white spirits industry.

Articles by Richard Woodard

Where will the future take Tequila & mezcal? - Research in Focus 11 January 2019

The long-term success story for Tequila looks set to continue in the years ahead, but there are challenges looming. Clouds on the horizon include the ongoing agave shortage and the category's ever-increasing reliance on the US market.

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Future for Tequila, mezcal continues to be US-shaped - research 10 January 2019

Tequila and mezcal are poised to continue their recent growth surge in the years ahead, but agave-based spirits are becoming even more reliant on the dominant US market, a new report from just-drinks and the IWSR says.

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The future of cannabis in the drinks industry - just-drinks FUTURES 13 December 2018

The future of cannabis in the food and beverage industry will be worth billions. In fact, the continued legalisation of the drug for recreational use marks a defining point in the history of both sectors. This report offers a detailed look at what the market might look like, who the players and consumers will be - and what food and drinks companies need to do now.

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Is craft spirits approaching a reset moment? - Comment 4 December 2018

The recent bankruptcy filing by Death's Door Spirits Co in the US has prompted spirits commentator Richard Woodard to look more closely at the craft end of the category. Is reality starting to bite?

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Where can RTD and cider categories find future growth? - Research in Focus 30 November 2018

The world's RTD brands can benefit from a growing market over the next few years, but divergent trends involving premiumisation and health consciousness will create varied conditions in the category's major markets.

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Emerging markets offer respite for RTDs, as cider set to premiumise - research 29 November 2018

The global market for RTDs is set to continue to grow through to 2022, in spite of a slight decline in volumes in 2017, according to a new report from just-drinks and the IWSR.

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Diageo Performance Trends 2014-2018 - results data 19 November 2018

In late-July, Diageo released its full-year results for fiscal-2018. The group saw its sales in the 12 months to the end of June rise by 5% in organic terms on the year-prior. Here, just-drinks picks through Diageo's performance over the past five years for the trends set to affect the group, specifically, and the global spirits category, more broadly.

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What will be Diageo's priorities for the years ahead? - Analysis 19 November 2018

As part of just-drinks' deep-dive into the trends that have driven Diageo's performance over the last five years, Richard Woodard considers the areas that will be priorities for the group in the coming years.

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Why spirits brands lists warn that the Chinese are coming - Comment 6 November 2018

This month, our white spirits commentator has been looking at lists. Lots and lots of lists. His findings, from a spirits perspective, suggest we should keep one eye on China's baijiu producers - and not merely for competitive purposes.

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Which international whiskies segments will challenge Scotch's dominance? - Research in Focus 5 November 2018

The future looks overwhelmingly bright for the huge international whisky category, but stock constraints continue to hamper growth, especially for Japanese and Irish whisky brands. The new Global International Whisky Insights 2018 report from just-drinks and The IWSR highlights this continuation of a purple patch of growth for non-Scotch whisky, which has moved from volumes of 270m cases in 2013 to almost 315m cases in 2017.