Bored of gin. Well your customers’ aren’t. So much so that that gin sales have soared by 20% in the past year, with 117 new distilleries opening up in the UK since 2010, 49 of those in the past year alone, according to figures released by The Wine and Spirit Association (WSTA).
It shows that sales in pubs, restaurants and bars topped the half a billion pounds mark, beating supermarket and off-trade sales which saw a 10% rise to £400m. Crucially value sales are higher than volume sales showing consumers are happy to pay a premium price for their gin.
The gin phenomenon has seen £200m added to on-trade sales since 2012, with year-on-year sales up 20% in the last 12 months to January. In recent months, the amount of gin sold in the on-trade increased even further, up by a whopping 23%, which accounts for an additional £30m of sales in the 12 weeks from November to January.
Gin also tops the spirits charts in UK pubs with sales up by 13% in 2015 and 35% in five years, more than any other spirit.
And the boom shows no sign of slowing down, with figures from the Inland Revenue showing that the number of distilleries opening in the UK last year increased by 50%.
It is not just in the UK where British gin remains in high demand. Some 140m bottles heads to the export market, where sales have surged by 37% in the past five years, bringing in £16m of duty and £21m of VAT to the taxman’s coffers.
“This is a hugely exciting time for everyone involved in the UK gin industry,” said the WSTA’s chief executive Miles Beale. “This is a massive achievement and shows the Great British spirit continues.”
