Established names continue to impress Brands founded more than a century ago take all three podium spots in this year’s Scottish alcohol top ten table CONGRATULATIONS to the top ten brands that feature on our list. There’s no change in the top ten brands since last year, with the only difference being a jostling for position. Tennent’s remains in top spot, and with the brand’s current strapline, “Turning Scottish rain into beer since 1885”, some of this success may well be attributed to our lovely climate. Rain is also a feature of the brand sitting in second place, The Famous Grouse, which was established in 1896 and cites Scottish water as a key ingredient. The fact that these two brands, alongside Whyte & Mackay (in third place), have been around for over 100 years is testament to their loyal following among Scottish consumers.
Brewdog is the fastest climber of the pack, going from tenth place last year to fifth this year. This time last year the main topic of conversation was Minimum Unit Pricing (MUP) and whether it would have the intended effect on Scotland’s alcohol intake. Our latest data show that it has certainly had an impact on sales of alcohol, with value sales growing faster and volume sales declining more sharply than in Britain as a whole. It has also had an effect on the share of spend between private label and branded lines, with a heavier decline in volume terms in private label than in Britain overall. The impact of the policy is to accelerate the existing trend of consumers drinking less, but better. That said, we will need
Scotland’s biggest alcohol brand, Tennent’s, has been pushing its provenance.
Lesley Ann’s overview LESLEY Ann Gray, strategic lead for Scotland at market research company Kantar – which provides the listing of the top 50 Scottish non-alcohol brands in Scotland and the top 25 Scottish alcohol brands in Scotland – analyses the year for the leading Scottish brands in Scottish food and drink retailing.
to take a longer term view before we can judge how successful the policy has been in terms of improving the nation’s health.
year nationally, seeing value growth of 24%. Currently, beer and wine are the main players in this field, with the former seeing
The growth of no alcohol beers accelerated after the introduction of MUP in Scotland. Health and wellbeing are at the forefront of many shoppers’ minds, and in the alcohol sector this manifests itself in an ambition to moderate our drinking. As a result, one area increasingly favoured by shoppers is no and low ABV alternatives. The growth of no alcohol beers accelerated after the introduction of MUP in Scotland, with half of the buyers returning to buy again. Overall, the low ABV alcohol market has attracted an additional 200,000 shoppers this
the fastest growth (49%) as brands grow their portfolio to offer an alcohol-free alternative. Brands like Brewdog, with its no-alcohol beer Nanny State, are setting the pace in this blossoming market. Another element of the healthconscious trend is that calorie content is becoming a factor in consumers’ choices with Michelob Ultra showing clear labelling of calorie content. Of course, one result of the low and no alcohol trend is that the alcohol category is losing December 2019 · Scottish Grocer · 71
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