Alcoholic beverage brand owners are hoping for a strong return of performance in Spain, where the dialling-down of the COVID-19 pandemic last year did not come quickly enough to return sales to pre-pandemic levels.
In Global Drinks Intel’s next ‘Country Trends’ report, which will be published at the end of this month, spirits trade association Espirituosos España noted that spirits sales in the market last year jumped by 9.9% from the year prior. The performance was still around 20% down on 2019, before COVID hit the country.
An historical reliance on both the on-premise channel and tourism was flagged as the reason for the shortfall, although the omens look good for 2022.
“The recovery of spirits sales in volumes [in 2021] would have been worse had it not been for a strong finish to the year, thanks to the relaxing of restrictions.” González Byass international marketing director Victoria González-Gordon told GDI. “The first six months of 2021 was defined by on-trade restrictions, a slow vaccine roll-out and confusing travel constraints, which got the year off to a slow start.”
While González-Gordon was more upbeat about this year for alcohol in Spain, Beveland Distillers marketing director Jordi Sahis added: “Hopefully this summer, there is going to be a boom in consumption because of the high demand for hotel bookings and flights.”
Of the spirits consumption trends accelerated by COVID in Spain, Zamora Co’s global marketing director for wines & marketing director for spirits in Spain, Carmen Giné, highlighted the preference for daytime drinking. “The time of consumption of spirits has clearly diversified and expanded, towards more diurnal moments: aperitifs, after a meal and during the afternoon,” Giné told GDI.
González-Gordon concurred: “Daytime and evening consumption have switched around with consumers moving to drinking more during the day,” she said.
The ‘Country Trends – Spirits in Spain’ report will appear in the July/August issue of Global Drinks Intel magazine. To guarantee a copy, click here for details on how to subscribe.
