The Coop unveils nearly 30 new wines for autumn
The Coop has boosted its premium own label range on the back of its Irresistible taking a larger share of sales, unveiling nearly 30 new wines for the autumn and Christmas season.
The refresh includes 27 wines that are new to the range, alongside a further 30 new vintages, a trio of no and lo, and a limited edition ale. It see the introduction of “fresher red wine styles that meet the demand for unoaked, supple-tannin and fruit-forward reds”, the retailer said, as well as “more robust” reds including Malbec and Rioja.
Buyer Sarah Benson MW told db the retailer had boosted the premium own-label range on the back of Irresistible seeing an uplift of 3 percentage points in its overall share of total wine sales. The Irresistible now accounts for 12.% of wine sales compared to 9.2% in 2021, the Coop said.
The move also helps the retailer taps into the long-standing and oft-quoted trend of ‘drinking less but better’, she said, which has been ongoing since the pandemic.
“We’ve certainly seen that Irresistible as a premium own-label tier can help give people a little bit of guidance, a bit more confidence in exploring new areas,” she said. “For example, Chile is a case in point, where we’ve found that brands don’t particularly work well. And yet we converted a Carignan to the Irresistible label, and sales have doubled – despite it being exactly the same wine that was [previously] under a producer brand. So I think it just gives people a little bit more confidence to try something out of their comfort zone.”
Among the eight additions to the Irresistible range are: an English Bacchus, from Balfour (RRP: £13); a Grenache Blanc from Paul Mas Wineries (RRP: £8.50); an Alvarinho; a Douro red from Real Companhi Velha (RRP: £8.50); a Primitivo; Montepulciano D’Abruzzo Riserva 2024, and a Chianti.
In addition to driving the own-label agenda, Benson said the additions championed some lesser-known or less popular regions such as Moldova and Germany, as well as lesser-known varieties. The two Moldovan wines are from producer Asconi, a Casa Felina Sauvignon Blanc Feteasca Alba 2024 (RRP: £7.50) and a Feteasca Negra 2023. She also noted a new Petit Verdot from Spain, made by Bulgarian winemaker Alexander Ivanov; an Albert Glas Pinot Noir from Germany (RRP: £9.50) as well as an Alvarinho from Portugal.
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Additions to the sparkling and champagne offer include two sparkling rosés, a Spumante from Italian producer San Martino and a Cava from Cavas Marevia in Valencia, as well as Cremant de Bourgogne and Laurent-Perrier La Cuvee Champagne NV (RPP: £54) which is available in 163 of its 2,400 stores.
It has also added a trio of new no and low Fairtrade wines to cater for those cutting back on alcohol consumption – quoting recent Kantar data that said 46% of consumers claim to be switching to no or low as well as ‘added-benefit soft drinks’. Among these additions is an Argentine alcohol-free sparkling wine, based on Torrontes, from Tilimuqui. The wine’s aromatic profile was important, Knowles noted, as much of the aromatics can be stripped out when working with no and low alcohol.
As the wines are ranged by demographic, the wines are stocked in different numbers depending of stores, which Benson explained, with the smaller and urban stores tending to focus on value, and a greater focus on premium and super premium wines in the higher performing stores in. “There’s an element of getting the right range into the right stores, for the right customers,” she noted.
“In our urban stores, people have less time to look at things that they may be familiar with if they’re sort of short on time. We know, for example, that in capital, Manchester or urban hubs, people are doing more scratch-cooking, they’re a younger audience, and they’re more wine-engaged, so it’s about working to that knowledge.”
She said that with the new duty and EPR coming in on top of other costs, there had been a great focus on sourcing to ensure that wines could offer the same price point. “Because we range by grape variety in a lot of our estate, to have had discussions as a team as to where offers the best value – if we’re looking for more Shiraz, for example, where can that be found? An example is that we’re moving our Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon to Australia, because there’s much better value [there] and we can retain that price point, and continue to offer really good quality wine.”
