2 minute read
Cider Market
by 55 North
Press ahead with premium and crafted ciders
Convenience retailers have a “significant opportunity” to cash in on the UK’s profitable cider category, by focusingon premium variants and craft brands this summer, the 2022 Westons Cider Report suggests.
Crafted cider was the only segment to have posted growth in 2021 - having increased its market share from 14.2% in 2020 to 16.4% in 2021, the report reveals.
Crafted’s 2021 value share was also significantly up on 2019 pre-pandemic levels. The top ten crafted brands currently account for 82% of crafted category value, with the Henry Westons brand itself having seen year on year growth of 20.6% in 2021.
The craft segment also commands a higher price per litre at £3.28, compared with the market average of £2.31, meaning that crafted cider “continued to play an important role in driving value into the cider category,” Henry Westons said.
When it comes to crafted cider by format, glass bottles are the ‘go-to’ with a 69.3% share in 2021 compared with 63.8% in 2020. By comparison, can or other formats only make up 30.7% of crafted sales value, down from 36.2% the previous year. In terms of flavours, apple cider attracted the highest spend in 2021, with the average shopper spending £81.30 per year on apple cider.
Apple cider increased its share by 2.1% year on year to claim 62.5% of all off-trade sales, compared to fruit and pear, which both posted declines on 2020’s record sales. Compared with 2019 figures, value sales of apple cider were up 11.4% in 2021, vs fruit or flavoured ciders which grew by 2.7%, while pear declined. Total retail cider sales hit £1.2bn in 2021 - down 11.9% on the “unprecedented” year of sales posted in 2020, but up 6.8% on 2019 pre-pandemic levels.
Commenting on the cider category’s 2021 performance, Westons Cider head of business development Darryl Hinksman said: “While it was always going to be a challenge to lap a, quite frankly, unmaintainable boom in cider sales during 2020, in 2021, the category showed clear signs of promise.”
“The exceptional circumstances of 2020 rocked the boat– with off-trade sales achieving unprecedented growth and reaching record heights. Now that the dust is beginning to settle, cider sales are steadying once more – and household penetration, frequency and volume are up compared with 2019."
