Alcohol Consumption and COVID-19: The Impact
With the lifting and re-application of social distancing policies, on-trade businesses are having to keep up with a constantly changing landscape. A report by Kantar suggests businesses should focus more on evolving to the changes instead of re-bounding to the impact of COVID-19
Alcohol sales, as a whole, have grown as a result of opportunities brought by the pandemic. For example, 70% of premium brands have grown their category share! On-trade sales were also temporarily boosted by the Eat Out to Help Out scheme. But when this scheme finished the balance shifted back to Off-trade.
To account for the decrease in On-trade demand, Kantar suggest businesses offer deals that are away from the bar and are outside consumption friendly.
Off-trade alcohol sales however remain the fastest growing category in the UK. Celebratory after work drinking has been replaced by drinking within the home. Beer sales have actually increased exponentially, with a 66% increase between April and June 2020! Also, the No-Lo alcohol category has seen triple digit growth in June.
Here are a few ways that businesses can respond to the evolving trends identified in this article…
Heavily branded categories such as Alcohol and Confectionary are growing at fast rates. It’s important that your business understands the incremental impact of your brand within its category – this will help you to engage and understand your customers
You may want to size-up your bottles and pack-sizes, ready-to-drink offers, premiumisation, and ease of shop findability. Shopper behaviour is going to change to price and promotion expectations as a result of the recession
Shoppers may trade up or down in value as a result of Minimum Unit Pricing!
