American whiskey market worth £190m

The American whiskey market in the UK is now worth £190 million, with big brands helping to bolster growth.

Described as one of the “stand-out” sub-categories in the UK’s beer, wine and spirits sector, big brands helped boost growth of the American whiskey market by 19% in the last year.

Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey, owned by Brown-Forman, was named described as a “key contributor” to sales, growing its brand portfolio by 17% over the last 52 weeks to sales of £154m. The main driver of UK growth was its core Tennessee Whiskey, which achieved 18% value growth.

Meanwhile the UK’s number two brand, Jim Beam, has seen sales grow by more than 50% last year, pushing it close to hitting sales of £20m.

Nielsen noted that both brands had offered “better prices” last year, with prices down for 70cl bottles which has helped boost sales.

Smaller brands are also faring well. “Growth for smaller brands such as Woodford Reserve and Buffalo Trace points to more of a consumer trend than entirely price driven performance uplift,” said Nielsen.

Considering demographics, Nielsen said that younger shoppers were helping to drive with 17% of sales among the 18 to 34 year old age group. This compares to the group’s overall 8% expenditure in the spirits category as a whole.

The group added that it believed “whiskey style” variants, such as flavoured American “whiskeys”, are a “key factor” to the growth of American brands and are expected to expand.

“Both JD Honey and Jim Beam Maple have performed well, so expect more Flavour NPD to hit the shelves soon”, it said.

(Source: Nielsen ScanTrack/Homescan MAT data to 28.03.15`)