Spirit-Based RTDs Show Global Growth While Total Alcohol Volume Falls For Only 3rd Time In 15 Years – Report

Global sales volumes of RTDs grew by 8% in 2023 against a total drop in all alcohol sales volumes of 0.2% for the same period.

A just released report from UK-based analytics firm, Euromonitor International, said that the decline in total sales volume came about because of a confluence of circumstances including geopolitical upheaval impacting consumer sentiment, inflationary pressures in most western markets and a structural slowdown in China.

“The industry entered negative territory, a rare occurrence, highlighting the severity of the perfect storm facing it.” said Euromonitor’s Head of Alcoholic Drinks Research, Spiros Malandrakis.

Malandrakis said that both off and on-trade performance had decelerated significantly losing most of the momentum driving the post-pandemic bounce back and witnessing a 0.7% volume decline and 1% volume growth respectively.

In New Zealand while RTD sales volumes continued to trend down, total spirit and spirit-based drink volumes passed that of wine in 2023.

“Although RTD sales volumes are down compared with the same time last year the wine and beer categories are also just as affected as consumers drink less but choose either no and low alcohol alternatives or sip and savour premium spirits instead,” said Spirits New Zealand Chief Executive, Robert Brewer.

The consumer trend leading to increased premium spirit consumption against a backdrop of falling overall sales volumes was confirmed recently when the World Spirits Alliance released its Global Economic Impact Study: https://www.worldspiritsalliance.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/WSA-Economic-Contribution-Report-2024.pdf

“As consumers drink less they are choosing to spend their money differently. This has meant a surge in popularity for premium spirits,” said Robert.

“This is good news for our fledgling homegrown spirits sector which prides itself on producing premium spirits and which is already establishing itself as a growing exporter of premium product.”

Headline figures from WSA the report include -

- The spirits industry contributed US$730 billion (approx. NZ$1,197 billion). gross value added to global GDP in 2022.

- Supporting 36 million jobs worldwide (equivalent to the entire workforce of the UK).

- In 2022, the spirits industry generated US$390 billion (approx. NZ$640 billion) in tax revenue for governments globally, which if it was a national economy would put it in the top 20 worldwide.

- With US$120 billion (approx. NZ$197 billion) spent on third party suppliers like grain growers and bottle-makers, the spirits industry fuels a diverse range of sectors.

- 50% of spirits sold globally in 2022 were at premium level or above, reflecting consumers’ growing preference to drink less and drink better.

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