Sales up 6 percent on average

Combined retail sales of spirits in the nine categories audited by Nielsen amounted to HUF 47 billion, growing by 6 percent in December 2014-Jul 2015. Bitter (15 percent), pálinka (14 percent), gin (14 percent) and whiskey (11 percent) value sales grew the most. Sales decreased in the following categories: vodka (1 percent), liqueur (4 percent), brandy (2 percent) and rum (7 percent). In terms of volume sales the market is shrinking, only bitter sales augmented by 10 percent and pálinka sales rose 8 percent. Until about 5 years ago pálinka was the best-selling spirit in Hungarian grocery retail, but the changes in excise duty regulation in 2010 allowed the home distilling of pálinka for own consumption for a quantity of 50 litres a year, and at the same time the excise duty on commercial spirits increased very much. These changes made many distillers manufacture commercial products from vodka, e.g. formerly 37.5-percent abv plum pálinka now classifies as vodka in Nielsen audits because of this. Consequently, vodka became the biggest spirit category with HUF 15-billion sales in the 8-month period. If we take a look at story types’ market shares, the picture is rather diverse. For instance stores bigger than 2,500m² had a 62-percent share in whisky sales and 44 percent in pálinka sales. The 401-2,500m² channel had a 64-percent share in gin sales, while 36 percent of vermouth and 23 percent of pálinka were sold in these stores. 201-400m² shops had a 3-percent share in rum sales and a 6-percent share in vodka and vermouth sales. 51-200m² stores realised 22 percent of vodka sales but most other categories were around 10 percent in these units. Shops with a 50m² floor space or smaller also had a 22-percent share in vodka sales and a 17-percent share in rum sales.