In 2016, the Italian drinks industry was penalised by a less favourable summer season, resulting in a 0.5% drop in sales, in volume terms.
On a positive note, a recent report by market-research firm IRI showed that the sector demonstrated constant growth during the rest of the year and, in particular, in the last four months of 2016.
The end result is a mixed picture, with water (+0.9%), beer (+2.3%) and champagne/sparkling wine (+7.2%) all recording growth in sales, in terms of volume. However, other categories had a negative performance: wine (-1.1%), juices and nectars (-6.0%), non-carbonated drinks (-7.9%) and carbonated drinks (-3.6%).
Within the overall beverages sector, water accounts for 70% of volume (20.6% of value), while beer was responsible for 6.1% of volume (15.6% of value).
Beer managed to achieve positive results, despite the extremely unfavourable temperatures. Also, there still may be room for growth, as the per-capita consumption of beer in Italy is still much lower than the European average.
Sales are up both for standard (+3.8%) and premium (+2.3%) beer, as well as special beers (+12.3%). On the other hand, Italians have been losing interest in economy (-8.4%), non-alcoholic/light (-0.6%) and flavoured beers (-11.9%).
Out of the 123 types of beers available, on average, on store shelves, 55 are so-called 'special beers'.
Overall, the Italian beer market was worth €1.19 billion in 2016 (+2.3%), for a total of 6.21 million hectolitres.
© 2017 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Branislav Pekic. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
