Restructuring spirits market

Combined retail sales of the nine spirits categories audited by Nielsen in the December 2012-July 2013 period amounted to HUF 43 billion in a restructuring market. Four years ago pálinka was the best-selling spirit in Hungarian retail, but two years ago vodka was ranked the highest as regards retail sales, and bitter also performed better than pálinka.

The reason of this change is that the excise duty of commercial alcoholic beverages increased significantly, therefore several manufacturers switched from pálinka-based to vodka-based products in the commercial alcoholic beverage category. In the December 2012-July 2013 period vodka sales amounted to HUF 14 billion, value sales were up 26 percent and volume sales grew by 19 percent from the base period. The bitter market valued at HUF 10 billion and Nielsen registered plus 10 percent in value sales and a 4-percent growth in volume sales. Pálinka was sold in the value of HUF 6 billion but both value and volume sales plunged, by 27 percent and 37 percent, respectively. Whisky sales raked in HUF 5 billon, liqueur sales amounted to more than HUF 3 billion, brandy was sold for less than HUF 3 billion, people spent a bit more than HUF 1 billion on vermouth, rum sales went below the HUF 2 billion threshold and stores’ revenue from gin sales was less than HUF 500,000 – both value and volume sales of these spirits dropped in the examined period.