I recently came across two articles of interest about wine sales in the UK. The first was UK retail giant Tesco predicting that in the coming years online wine sales, currently worth around GBP 250 million per year in the UK, will grow faster than online sales of groceries and non-food items. The total online grocery sales market for 2011 is estimated at GBP 5.8 billion.
The second article was that South African wine giant Distell had bought a “significant” stake in UK wine operation Brand Phoenix to build sales of its wines in British supermarkets. Apparently Distell were attracted by Brand Phoenix’s low-overhead business model and strong in-store promotions.