Alongside our daily news coverage, features and interviews, the Just Drinks news team sifts through the week’s most intriguing data sets to bring you a roundup of the week in numbers.
This week, we took a look at CCEP's volumes in Europe after German competition authority Bundeskartellamt initiated “abuse proceedings” into the Coca-Cola bottling company, looked into France’s export volumes as Delaunay Vins et Domaines said the country needed to up its wine-branding game and compared the potential for the global rum and Tequila markets.
Germany alone sees volume growth in CCEP Q3
CCEP’s volumes dropped in Europe in the bottling giant’s third quarter despite an increase in revenue, driven by pricing. Volumes fell 4% in the three months to 29 September compared to the same period of last year.
In Germany, meanwhile, volumes grew, boosted by “continued strong trading in the home channel supported by great execution”. Germany was the only region in Europe and API which saw volume growth.
It comes as German competition authority Bundeskartellamt this week initiated “abuse proceedings” into the Coca-Cola bottling company. The investigation will focus on CCEP’s rebates with German food retailers.
“In particular, the authority will investigate whether Coca-Cola’s rebate structure legitimately or illegitimately creates incentives for food retailers to buy, display and advertise the full range of beverages offered by Coca-Cola,” Bundeskartellamt said.
CCEP’s revenue in Germany grew 9% to €800m ($857.6m) in the third quarter, contributing to a year-to-date growth of 11.5%. It said revenue growth was driven by “favourable pricing”.
France lags behind Spain, Italy in export volumes
This year France is predicted to return to pole position in global wine production, overtaking Spain. It produced 45.8mhl of wine – slightly above its five-year average, according to OIV estimates.
France remains in third place in terms of global wine export volume, though it exports the highest amount of wine in terms of value, at $12.3bn in 2022.
This week Laurent Delaunay, owner of wine group Delaunay Vins et Domaines, told Just Drinks France was losing market share to other wine producing nations due to winemakers’ failure to adopt a branded approach and fixation with tradition.
“We are not realistic enough,” he said. “We don't want to see the truth. We can't believe what we see because we are so sure that our traditions and so on cannot be changed.”
He added: “In the last 20 years in the global wine production market France has lost 14% of market share, to the benefit of all the others. All the main wine producing countries have improved and increased their market share.
“In France, in the last 50 years, we believed that the appellation model could be applied to everybody. In 1970, only 31% of the wines produced in France were appellation (AOV/AOC) wines. Now it’s 91%.
“This model works very well in Burgundy but it’s not going to work everywhere.
“[France] has neglected a good-quality, branded approach – like what we tried to do with Les Jamelles, for instance – and it was a mistake.”
LoNo beer continues UK boom
Sales of low-and-no alcohol beer in the UK continue to rise in the still-nascent market, data shows.
In 2023, 376,230hl of 0% abv beer is expected to be sold compared to 137,450hl in 2019, according to analysis by GlobalData, Just Drinks’ parent group.
UK punters drank 316,160hl of 0-0.5% abv beers in 2023, compared to 215,350 in 2019.
It comes as this week Rob Fink, CEO of UK non-alc brewer Big Drop, told Just Drinks getting on draught was “essential” for brands like his.
The ex-City lawyer said the UK market was “significantly more interesting than it was five, six years ago, both in the range of beers available and also brands”.
He said: “Alcohol-free on draught is essential to continuing to drive and even exponentially increasing consumer appetite for it. We all know how important the British pub is to our national culture and the pint as an institution. If you could have a pint of great tasting beer that happens to be alcohol-free I think that’s just a whole new gateway -- an opening up of the market.”
The UK alcohol-free beer specialist also wants to build on its presence Stateside, its second-largest market after the UK.
Tequila and mezcal set for fast growth pace while larger rum category remains steady
The global market value of rum is set to stand at $33.4bn in 2024, reaching 1.56bn litres, according to GlobalData analysis.
The surging Tequila and mezcal market, meanwhile, is forecast to stand at roughly half of the market value of rum and less than one-third of its volume. In the UK specifically, rum’s value is predicted to reach $1.8bn while Tequila and mezcal will only reach $168m.
However, while starting from a smaller base than rum, Tequila and mezcal are due to grow at a faster rate between now and 2027.
The global Tequila and mezcal category, worth an estimated $15.4bn in 2023, is set to shoot to $20.6bn by 2027. Size-wise, its 2023 estimate of 401m litres per year could reach north of 500m litres by 2027.
At Arena’s Spirits Strategies and Innovation Conference 2023 in London, presented by Just Drinks, spirits producers said premiumisation remained at the forefront of their minds when looking at future trends for the category, despite pressures on consumer spending.
