Magazine: The market is bubbly

About 40-50 percent of sparkling wine and champagne sales is still realised in the November-December period, but the significance of summer months and various holidays is growing – György Kovács, managing director of Törley Pezsgőpincészet Kft. informed our magazine. For instance the sales of more expensive premium sparkling wines increased by two-digit numbers. Dry premium products were selling better in the Horeca segment too during the past year. Mr Kovács spoke to us about the positive trend of sparkling wine consumption at world level, which is driven by prosecco sales, especially in Germany and in the English-speaking countries. In Hungary two thirds of the market is still dominated by sweet varieties, with dry sparkling wine sales growing moderately and semi-dry varieties selling in about the same quantity. Branded products are gaining ground to the detriment of the so-called ‘channel brands’.

Róbert Fórián Szabó, marketing director of Royalsekt Zrt. sees no significant change in consumption habits, people still drink sparkling wine 1-2 times a year. In the last 5 years the company’s sales augmented from 900,000 bottles to 5 million, with 90 percent being sold in retail. Zoltán Prisztavok, sales and marketing director of Kreinbacher Estate told our magazine that sparkling wine has become trendy and more and more people drink dry, bottle-fermented varieties. The company sells the majority of its products in Horeca units and specialist shops, therefore they feel the effects of seasonality less. Mr Kovács agreed that the market of bottle-fermented sparkling wines is definitely expanding. He added that the culture of drinking sparkling wine and champagne can be promoted best with direct communication between consumers and sparkling wine makers, which can be done most efficiently by small companies – a growing number of these are appearing in the market these days. As demand in the Horeca sector is on the rise for ‘only at us, only now’-type products, Törley only sells the latest product in its François range in this channel. The company is optimistic: they think that with the quality of life improving in Europe and Hungary, sparkling wine consumption will grow too. Royalsekt surprises consumers with something new every year, either with a new product or with changes in packaging design. The company forecasts that sparkling wines will remain popular in the next few years and they expect no changes in consumer taste. Their main concern is maintaining the quality of products and innovating in line with consumer demand. Kreinbacher focuses on the Horeca channel and it has even tailored its portfolio with the special needs of the segment in mind, in cooperation with Bortársaság. This autumn the company puts a special, limited edition sparkling wine on the market. They hope that consumers are slowly but steadily becoming more sophisticated, just like it happened in the wine sector.