Rolling update: wine retailers celebrate festive Prosecco sales boom

By Gemma McKenna

Published: 03 January, 2014

Retailers are toasting a festive sales boom thanks to Prosecco, with both Tesco and Virgin Wines seeing the sparkling wine sales' double.

Tesco said that between Christmas and New Year sparkling wine sales were "up considerably" compared to the same period last year, with Prosecco accounting for much of the growth. The supermarket's own label Plaza Prosecco sales were up almost 200% while Finest Prosecco sales trebled. Outside of Champagne, Prosecco made up half of all sparkling wines sold this year. Sales of seasonal items including Bucks Fizz and mulled wine also sold considerably more than last year.

Tesco attributes the growth to "existing shoppers increasing spend in comparison to the same time last year".

Meanwhile Virgin Wines saw year on year sales increase by 15% in the month of December, and attracted record numbers of new customers.

The company received orders from over 40,000 new customers, the highest number it has attracted in one month.

It despatched over 120,000 cases of wines to its customers during December, and welcomed 850,000 unique visitors to its website.

Prosecco also performed well at Virgin with sales double that of corresponding products in the pervious year.

Jay Wright, chief executive of Virgin Wines, said: "This has been a hugely successful Christmas for Virgin Wines, and we are incredibly pleased with the results achieved. Although tough economic conditions have affected some other retailers, we've managed to exceed all our targets for the month.

"We are delighted that customers clearly value our extensive range of handcrafted wines, delivered direct to their door, and aim to build on this success throughout 2014. Prosecco was the real star of Christmas 2013, and early signs are pointing to customers looking for quality and value over price as their key criteria."

Let us know how your festive season has fared. You can post a comment below, email Gemma McKenna or tweet @harperswine.

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