Cheer for beer
This summer’s FIFA World Cup has been credited with sparking a much-needed reversal in fortune for UK beer sales.
However, the uplift in sales of 2.9%, the first like-for-like quarterly increase in the last four years, was largely driven by the off-trade, according to the UK Quarterly Beer Barometer.
Like-for-like beer sales in supermarkets and off-licences during second quarter rose by 13.7% this year, with year-on-year sales up by 4.4%, according to figures released by the British Beer & Pub Association.
And, even though the year-on-year beer market continues to be in decline, most recently by 1.4%, this figure is still a significant slowdown on the rate of decline and remains the best result since the second quarter of 2006.
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Brigid Simmonds, BBPA chief executive, said: “The World Cup has certainly been a benefit to Britain’s beer sector and we can now hope that the market is starting to turn a corner.”
The improved off-trade performance is a stark contrast to sales in the on-trade, as Simmonds adds: “Beer sales in pubs are still falling and the nation’s pubs need support.”
Jane Parkinson, 02.08.2010
