|
Below is a brief excerpt from a complimentary research note written by our Consumables analysts Howard Penney and Daniel Biolsi. We are pleased to announce our new Sector Pro Product Consumables Pro. Click HERE to learn more. |
February wine DTC sales (BSPE)
ACCORDING TO WINES VINES ANALYTICS, winery DTC shipments rose 17% in February to more than $300M (as seen in the chart below), while volume rose 23% to nearly 650,000 cases. In 2020 DTC volumes of wine shipments had the largest year of growth at 27%.
The average price of a bottle decreased 9.5% to $36.83 in 2020, yet shipments of wines under $30 grew 41.6% while wines above $100 per bottle fell 2%. Sales of all U.S. wine totaled $66.4B in the year ended February, down 12% to the previous 12 months.
Domestic wine sales fell more than 8% to $46.5B in the year ended February. For the month of February, sales fell 6%.
Both Vintage Wine Estates and Duckhorn (NAPA) were able to grow their toplines during the pandemic because of their DTC segments, including wine clubs as well as off-premise sales offsetting on-premise sales.
We are hosting a webcast with Vintage Wine Estates and Bespoke Capital Acquisition Corp's management teams at 2 PM EST on Tuesday. We hope you can join us.
Innovation in packaging opens up wine occasions (NAPA)
Glass is the dominant packaging material for U.S. wines, accounting for 77% of the volume of wine sold through off-premise channels in the year ended February 20.
Wine sales in the standard 750ml bottle represented 44% of total off-premise sales. Off-premise sales favored box wines which were up 21% by value and 16% by volume. Plastic grew 27% by value and 26% by volume. Cans grew 64% by value and 71% by volume.
Smaller glass packaging was the fastest growing (as seen in the chart below), with table wines packaged in 375ml glass exceeding $40M in the past year.
The growth in alternative wine packaging has opened up occasions for wine consumption, helping drive growth. This year will see more innovation in wine-based drinks like seltzers as well as packaging.
