WSWA: Consumer Confidence, Volatility Holding Back Recovery

While declines in the U.S. wine and spirits market have been stabilizing somewhat lately, the Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America (WSWA) see weak consumer confidence and volatility owing to tariffs and economic uncertainty as holding back a stronger recovery. In the first half of the year spirits depletions fell 6% in volume and 5% in revenue, according to WSWA’s SipSource data tracker, while wine posted sharper drops of -8.7% in volume and -8.5% in revenue.

WSWA said “declines in premiumization and distribution remain a concern” in wine, “particularly in on-premise channels where local purveyors continue to optimize wine lists and prioritize cash flow over large selections and inventories.” On the plus side, the Prosecco and Champagne categories have been bright spots in recent months.

Meanwhile, there are nascent signs of premiumization returning in spirits. “Premiumization trends are reemerging in key categories,” WSWA noted. “Revenue declines are now consistently less severe than volume declines, particularly in Premium+ price tiers.” As has been the case previously, Tequila and RTDs continue to drive depletion trends in the spirits sector.—Daniel Marsteller

Tagged : SipSource, WSWA

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