New figures from the Wine and Spirit Trade Association show that the rate of growth in the on-trade for sparkling wine in the on-trade is double that in the off-trade in the last year.
The combined sales are now over £1billion for the first time in the last 12 months to £1.05bn.
That breaks down as a 22% rise in off-trade sales to £709m, while sales in the bars and restaurants have soared by 44% to £348m.
In the last 12 weeks alone, sales have gone up by 49% in the on-trade to £98m compared to only 20% in the off-trade to £229m.
In volume terms, sales have shot up in the on-trade by 49% in the past year to 100,000hl, and 53% in the last 12 weeks of this period to 29,000hl.
In pubs alone, sales have increased by 270% since 2011, a value of £95m.
The Wine and Spirit Trade Association predicts that at the current rate of growth, sparkling wine sales volumes will reach the 800,000 hl mark by the end of the year – twice as much as in 2012. And by 2020 sales could feasibly reach 1 billion hl.
“Sparkling wine has once again experienced excellent growth, which is fantastic news for our expanding English wine industry,” said the WSTA’s chief executive Miles Beale.
