Australian brewer Foster’s, which owns wine brands Penfolds and Wolf Blass, has added its voice to what many of us already know: the recession has hit the wine market hard.
Speaking to Decanter after his company reported a five percent fall in global wine volume, Foster’s chief executive officer Ian Johnston, said, “the wine category is bearing the full brunt of a lack of consumer confidence brought on by global economic conditions.”
“Trading conditions in key wine markets will remain challenging in 2010 due to the ongoing impact from recessionary economic conditions,” Decanter reported the company as saying.
On-premise sales have dropped sharply as people cut back on dinning out and sales of top-end wines have suffered as customers traded down. A silver lining was in the entry level and low margin wine category which has seen growth.