Total World Cup drinks sales reach £1.1billion despite fading interest in final weeks

By Richard Siddle

Published: 18 July, 2014

Final drinks sales for the World Cup reveal that overall beers, wines and spirits were up by £15.1 million for the five weeks of the tournament to top £1.1 billion.

Is the party over now? Is the party over now?Drinks sales slow as the World Cup comes to an end

Final drinks sales for the World Cup reveal that overall beers, wines and spirits were up by £15.1 million for the five weeks of the tournament to top £1.1 billion.

But the excitement of the tournament definitely faded in the last week as total value sales for beer, wines and spirits were down by £26.2 million compared to the same week in 2013, a decline of 10.9% year-on-year, according to IRI data.

This compares to the excitement the country had going in to the tournament with a total value sales decline of £36.9 million compared to week one of the World Cup.

In the final week of its World Cup drinks analysis, the Wilson Drinks Report found that:

Champagne and sparkling were the only major drinks category to show year-on-year value growth for week five of the World Cup, up 3.8% on 2013. Perhaps it was all those Germans celebrating across the country. But even then Champagne and sparkling wine saw unit volumes decline by 3.5% in the last seven days.

The fizz certainly went out of the cider category with unit volumes down 28.4% and value sales down 32.2%, for week ending July 12. But cider still had a World Cup bounce as figures compared to the four weeks immediately prior to the World Cup show unit volumes up 9.9% and value up 10.5%.

Lager value sales fell back 23.1% in the last week and unit volumes were down 16.9% compared to 2013.

Ale and stout were also down on last year: unit volumes down 2.7%, value sales down by 9.2%.

Tim Wilson, managing director of WDR, said: "The latest IRI data shows that week five sales in total were almost identical to weeks three and four of the World Cup. The initial sales boost in week 1 was never going to be maintained for the rest of the campaign, but the demise of high profile teams like Spain, Italy and England definitely had an impact.

"On the plus side, total alcohol sales in supermarkets were more than £1.1 billion for the five weeks of the World Cup, 1.4% ahead of the same period last year. Perhaps the biggest category winners were ale and stout, where total unit volumes were up 13.4% and value sales up 5.0% over the 5 weeks."

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