We are pleased to share the second edition of our Independent Off-Trade Wine Report.
Once again, we have worked with Reward (formerly HDI) to track anonymised card spending across more than 120 of the UK's leading independent wine retailers. Given the general lack of data on the performance of the independent off-trade, we believe the report provides a uniquely robust view on how the sector is performing. More importantly, we hope that it highlights opportunities to strengthen your business.
Though the report shows an overall -5% decline in sales since March 2024, several independents are growing strongly, with one in four growing sales by over 10% in the same period. Despite a challenging market, remaining committed to selling on quality is key to the resilience of the independent off-trade. As we’ve seen in our premium on-trade report, volume and value performance in the quality-led off-trade is stronger than in more price-led supermarkets.
The major opportunity for independents is to give shoppers more reasons to visit with a continued focus on quality, breadth and personality of range, brought to life through great service, events and communication. The biggest driver of the change in performance for individual independents over the last two years is whether they are increasing customer numbers (or not). There’s also an opportunity to encourage lower-spending customers, who are just as affluent as higher-spenders, to spend more per visit and to engage an increasingly younger independent retail consumer with a broad range that reflects their inclination to explore.
You can access a copy of the report here: https://mailchi.mp/03eb40b4677f/tv8yqgphfl
We are committed to supporting each of our independent off-trade customers in seizing these opportunities. Please get in touch if there is anything we can do to help.