ALCOHOLIC DRINKS CONTINUE TO INNOVATE

Alcoholic drinks are worth nearly $1,400 billion and are the largest drinks category. Leading the way (in total revenue) are spirits, followed by beer, wine and finally cider. The market is expected to grow by 5.9% per year (CAGR 2023-2027, Mordor)

Beer and cider

Beer is the best-selling alcoholic drink in the world, accounting for nearly 40% of market share in value. Worldwide consumption of beer is declining in most countries, and dropped from 196.9 billion litres in 2012 to 177 billion in 2022. On the other hand, the market is shifting upwards thanks to the arrival of craft and premium beers which help to drive the category: generating an additional $100 billion in the space of five years to reach overall turnover of $622 billion.

Less well-developed, the worldwide cider market - 1.5 billion litres in 2022, or 100 times less than beer - is chiefly concentrated in Europe where 70% of all bottles produced are sold. The United Kingdom and Ireland are the world’s two biggest cider drinkers, followed by Spain and France. Market volume is expected to rise by 30% between now and 2028 (Mordor).

Spirits

Ranging from whisky and rum to vodka, brandy and more, the spirits market encompasses a wide spectrum of different alcoholic drinks which enjoy varying degrees of popularity depending on countries and their history. In 2018, the worldwide turnover for spirits amounted to $426 billion and could reach 498 billion (+17%) in 2023.

In 2022, 4,212.5 million litres of spirits were sold, and the figure should reach 4,337.4 million in 2025, or a 3% increase (My Natural Origins).

In this segment, whisky makes up 19% of market share, followed by brandy (15%) vodka (11%), rum (4%) and gin (3%), the rest being made up of other liqueurs and spirits.

Wine and champagne

In the wine sector, worldwide consumption is booming with attractive prospects for the sector’s stakeholders. Indeed, the wine market was worth 34 billion dollars in 2022 (Classe Export).

While France enjoys a worldwide reputation in this field, it is above all the United States that consumes the most wine in millions of hectolitres (34) followed by France (25 million hl) and Italy (23 million hl).

The world champagne market is fairly flat, with the inklings of a downward trend. In France, the leading producer in the world, sales fell by 1.5% between 2018 and 2022 according to Statista. Sales in supermarkets (the main retail channel) declined by 20% between 2018 and 2022.

For stakeholders in the alcoholic drinks industry, SIAL Paris is an unmissable meeting. At the previous edition in 2022, 182 exhibitors presented products in this segment (wine, spirits, beer, cocktails and digestives), with a strong international contingent, as 86% of them came from outside France.