Gin hit another record high last year with the juniper-based spirit breaking £2bn in annual sales for the first time.
This is according to latest figures from the Wine and Spirit Trade Association (WSTA) which show sales of gin over the 12-week Christmas period (up to 29/12/2018) were up a whopping 40% on the same period last year.
During the whole of 2018, British consumers bought over 73 million bottles of gin, breaking all previous records, with sales worth £2.1bn.
Meanwhile, previously unpublished figures show that sales of gin in the first quarter of the last two years all peak in March, in the run up to Mothering Sunday. Between January and March 2017 gin sold in UK supermarket and shops reached 6.4 million bottles of which 2.6 million, 41%, of those bottles were sold in the month of March.
Last year during the same 12-week period 9 million bottles of gin were sold of which 4.7 million, 52%, of those flew off our shelves in March.
Sales of alcohol are traditionally slow in the first three months of the year, compared to the summer and the festive season, however there is a noticeable spike in sales in March according to data from Nielsen.
Miles Beale, Chief Executive of the WSTA, commented: “The truly staggering rise in gin sales shows that British gin is gaining more and more fans by the day. And we fully expect to see sales rise again in March this year, just as they did last year. The latest expression of the UK’s fastest growing spirit – pink gin – is one of the ‘go to’ gifts for Mother’s Day.”
He added: “It’s high time gin’s new status and reputation were celebrated and supported by Government, which should be offering more support for British gin exports and a less taxing duty regime, both of which fail to support our entrepreneurial and innovative distillers.”
