Report is predicting a bright future
CIDER is in robust health with almost half of all households buying in the category. This is the headline finding in the Westons Cider Report 2018.
The research reveals that cider sales increased by 3.5% in value to £2.98bn in the last year.
And it is predicting that fruit ciders, such as its recently launched Stowford Press Mixed Berries, will account for almost half of sales within five years while value white cider and pear cider continue to decline sharply.
Insight and innovation manager, Matthew Langley, explained: “Fruit cider has grown by 338% in the last 12 years to represent 27% of the overall category across the on and off trade in 2017 so we are predicting that it will account for almost half of all cider sales by 2023 if current growth continues at the same rate.”
Langley said that off trade shoppers are becoming more adventurous but are still looking for value for money.
The report shows that off trade value sales of craft ciders are up by 22%, led by single glass bottle brands and premiumisation, making the off trade cider category now worth £1.12bn and growing by 5.3% in value.
“Despite strong gains in all segments of the market apart from value white and pear cider, our report clearly shows that the biggest category growth lies in crafted cider,” said Langley.
“Fruit cider also continues to deliver a strong performance for off-trade retailers, up by 11% in value to account for 33.5% of all sales.
“One of the most interesting movements has been in packaging, with cans now accounting for 46% of all fruit cider sales.
“Indeed, canned fruit cider in this channel has seen year on year value growth of 31.8%.”
Overall, Langley says, the future is bright for cider.
“Our report shows that there is a bright future for cider across both the UK on and off trade, but this will clearly be driven by crafted, premium and fruit offerings throughout 2018 and beyond,” he said.
“I would urge operators to use our report as a guide on how to navigate the category and to make good use of our impartial stocking guides.”
