9.10.17 Fall in Sherry Sales Eases off Slightly

In the latest figures from January to August 2017 sales of Sherry are down by 4% overall, a great improvement on the first quarter figures of 8.6%. Between January and August 19.1 million litres were sold as against the 20 million for the same period last year. It is in the export markets where sales are still falling, following the trend for the last few years, with a fall of 6% or 11.2 million litres, down from the 12 million litres of last year.

Spain has been the biggest market since it unseated the UK in 2014 and here 7.9 million litres were sold including a slight 1% drop. Sales in the traditional European markets fell 5.6% in the UK, 7% in Holland, and 16.6% in Germany and average sales in Europe were down by 6.3%, with a fall of 675,000 litres to a total of slightly less than 10 million litres. In the Americas, traditionally a smaller market, sales were down by an average of 7% with the US down 2%. The Asian market is also small and showed a drop of 5.4%.

Looking at the figures for the 12 months of September 2016 –August 2017 sales decline has slowed to 3.2% with total sales of 33.6 million litres as against 34.6 the previous period. The home market has shown slight growth of 0.8% with sales of around 12 million litres, but the export markets still show decline of 5.3%, 1,2 million litres less than for the same period last year. It is worth pointing out that it is in the traditional European markets where most BOB or own label is sold and it is is this which is in steepest decline.

Looking at the figures by type of wine there is a clear reduction in sales of the vinos generosos de licor or blended commercial wines as well as the sweeter ones. In recent years sales of the crianza biologica wines have outpaced these, and in the figures to August Manzanilla has grown 0.5% selling just over 5 million litres though Fino has dropped by 8.6%. Over the last 12 months sales of Manzanilla were 7.1 million litres and Fino 7.2 million litres. Meanwhile Amontillado, Oloroso and Palo Cortado have grown by 31%, 11% and 26% respectively from January to August. While Cream is still the biggest seller with sales of 7.3 million litres over the last year, it was down by 7.3% over the previous year, and down 3% so far this year. Pale Cream sales are falling fast with a drop of 18% this year. The naturally sweet wines are also losing sales with PX dropping 5% and Moscatel 3% so far this year.