There is also a rise in sales values in cider and perry with growth of 4% MAT, which equates to an increase in value of £74.2m, the latest edition of the Westons Cider Report 2019, which cited data from CGA, revealed.
Fruit cider in the on-trade represents two fifths (40%) of all cider volume sold in the on-trade and is now worth £826.9m – up 14.2% in volume and 15% in value.
Continuing flat performance
Pear cider has continued its steep decline (down by 25.8% in volume) and now represents 1.4% on on-trade cider volume sales.
Apple cider continues a flat performance with value falling by 2.1% and volume by 4.2%. However the influence of craft is beginning to creep into mainstream apple cider, the report stated, where two of the fastest growing apple cider products by volume are Strongbow Cloudy (volume increase of 2,561hl) and Thatchers Haze (volume rise of 5,758hl).
Draught cider represents almost three quarters (74%) of all cider sold in the on-trade and has seen growth in value of 8.3% and volume of 5.5%.
But it wasn’t such good news for packaged cider, which saw a decline in both value and volume of 4.1% and 7.2% respectively.
Huge contribution to sales
Westons Cider insight and innovation manager Matthew Langley said: “Cider has once again made a huge contribution to on-trade retailers’ overall sales and we see no sign of this changing.
“Outperformed only by spirits and soft drinks, there were the equivalent of 10m more pints of cider sold in the on-trade over the past year – 516m pints in total.
“Even more encouragingly, value (up 4%) has continued to grow ahead of volume (1.9%), which signals how drinkers are continuing to trade up to more premium ciders, while new exclusive research commissioned by Westons Cider for this year’s report reveals the breadth of cider drinkers continues to widen. All these factors are clearly good news for the category’s long-term prospects.”
