Friday, 17 December, 2021
Wine Intelligence
Beverage alcohol has proven to be one of the most resilient product categories in the world in the Covid era, in part thanks to the drinks industry’s ability to innovate and pivot from a largely restricted or closed channel – the on-premise – to more accessible channels such as e-commerce and convenience retail, where regulation allowed.
The challenges that face the wine industry next year and beyond will be similar to those facing beverage alcohol as a whole and consumer goods generally: keep costs down while persuading consumers to trade up; improving the substance as well as the image of the category in light of increasing demands from governments for a step-change commitment to environmental and social responsibility; and making the product relevant to the next generation of legal drinking age consumers.
In light of these broader themes, here are our five predictions for 2022:
1 Global wine will get serious about ‘light-weighting’ – reducing glass packaging weight
Despite many worthy efforts over the past 3 decades, the wine industry has yet to find a way of peeling consumers away from their love of a 75cl glass bottle. Part of the problem is that glass bottles work so well from a consumer point of view: they seem more environmentally friendly than plastic, they convey reassurance by reflecting the values, tradition, and quality of wine, and they look good on a table. Last month, we reported consumer research that showed 55% considered glass to be a ‘sustainable’ form of wine packaging, compared with 35% who thought that a bag-in-box was sustainable.
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