Smirnoff Red remains top of the spirits category class

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In good spirits: vodka and gin variants took the top two spots (credit: Getty/Sarah Mason)

Despite a drop in volume of sales by 16% (15% in value), Smirnoff Red has remained the top selling spirit on The Drinks List, followed by Gordon’s Pink Gin and Jägermeister.

According to the data collected by CGA, which has been used to create The Drinks List - top brands to stock in 2022, Smirnoff Red sold 527,555 9-litre cases for the 12 months to 9 October 2020, equating to £552.8m in value, down from £652m last year.

Gordon’s Gin has seen a drop in value of 31.3% and its Pink Gin counterpart, which has remained the second-best seller, has seen a drop in value of 23.6%.

Jägermeister moved from fourth to third place with the lowest drop in value (1.2%) on the spirits list this year, knocking Captain Morgan Spiced Rum from third to fourth place.

To the Captain

Captains Morgan Spiced saw a 16% drop in volume over the past 12 months having dropped from 163,557 sales of 9-litre cases to 137,339.

Aperol and Malibu were the only spirits on this year’s spirits Drinks List to see a growth in volume with an increase of 124% and 8% respectively.

Jack Daniel’s saw the biggest drop in volume, from 139,775 9 litre cases sold last year to 93,537 this year, equating to 33.1% in volume and 33.5% in value.

Baileys has also seen a drop in value from £56.1m to £42m (25.2%) and Bacardi Carta Blanca saw sales of 9 litre cases fall by 23.8%.

  • All data provided by CGA for the 12 months to 9 October 2021
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