Magazines Archives - 2010 June

Hong Kong wine business enjoying rosy growth
Story 4 - Food Biz Asia

THE global financial meltdown appears to have had little impact on Hong Kong’s wine sales. A new report by The Nielsen Company shows that over 10 million bottles of wine were sold last year, a significant 16% increase over 2008.

In its report, Nielsen, a global information and measurement company, attributed the growth to strong support from key retailers via effective promotion, adding that this made wine one of the fastest-growing beverage categories in Hong Kong.

Said Oliver Rust, managing director of The Nielsen Company Hong Kong: “The removal of wine duty coupled with the aspiration of Hong Kongers for a trendy lifestyle have led to wines being an integral part of daily life. Together with key supermarket retailers offering discounts on multi-bottle purchases, the average price per bottle of wine has further dropped by 4% compared to 2008. This enabled the value of sales in the wine category to grow at 11% for 2009, but this growth rate still falls behind the total for that of volume sales.”

For two consecutive years, the average price of wine declined considerably in favour of the consumer.

"In 2009, we [saw] an obvious price polarisation within the wine category with a stronger skew towards wines priced below HK$130 (US$16.66) per bottle. This segment has outgrown premium wines in the past year with its volume increasing 21%. This phenomenon echoes back to the sentiment of frugal consumers during the first half of 2009," Rust added.

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