Rationalising in wine trade

Károly Gerendai
wine and sparkling wine sales and category specialist
METRO

Károly Gerendai, METRO’s wine and sparkling wine sales and category specialist: “Because of the strong tourist season, this year our wine sales have been very good so far. Still, we are prepared for the negative effect of the rising prices on wine and sparkling wine consumption. Our prices are tailored to professional buyer needs, and they focus on the price-value ratio. We have rationalised our wine assortment, adapting it more to buying habits and market needs; however, our wine selection didn’t shrink. Due to the price increase, sales have dropped in certain wine categories.

More distinct target groups

Mr Gerendai added that METRO expects the different buyer groups to become more separated than they are now: today there is still transition between the categories, as many buyers put different price-category wines into their baskets, or they simply switch price categories.

Judit Tőzsér
head of company communications
Lidl

Judit Tőzsér, Lidl’s head of company communication: “Due to the energy crisis and many struggling bars and restaurants, several winemakers are in a difficult situation. We are trying to give them a helping hand, selling as many of their products as we can. Lidl is proud of its unique wine selection. In the high and medium categories we see growing demand for affordable, value-for-money wines and sparkling wines.”

Conscious consumers

Ms Tőzsér mentioned that sparkling wines are more and more popular among young consumers, especially in the summer. A growing proportion of Lidl’s customers choose wines consciously.

Márk Maczelka
head of communications
SPAR Magyarország

Márk Maczelka, SPAR’s head of communications: “Energy crisis and a very dry summer – because of these factors, costs have increased very much in the wine category.

In the last two years we primarily concentrated on adding premium wines to our assortment, in line with shopper needs.

White wine sales are still growing above the average. From red wines shoppers also tend to choose light and fruity types. Sales of bag-in-box format wines strengthened very much during the pandemic, because of the increase in home consumption.”

More premium private labels!

Árpád Balogh-Fazekas
wine, sparkling wine, spirit and beer buyer
Auchan

Árpád Balogh-Fazekas, Auchan’s wine, sparkling wine, spirit and beer buyer: “The current economic problems have an influence on the wine category too, no wonder that volume sales have dropped. In spite of this we haven’t changed our product selection. We are selling more than 1,200 different wines and sparkling wines.

Auchan regularly adds new products to its private label assortment, usually premium wines. In the last three years red wine consumption has dropped a little in Hungary, we also sell more white wine in terms of both value and volume. In packaging 0.25-litre aluminium can and bag-in-box are increasingly frequent.”

Collective planning

Ádám Roland Kiss
wine and sparkling wine buying manager
Tesco

Ádám Roland Kiss, Tesco’s wine and sparkling wine buying manager: “Economic hardships are posing serious challenges to us. The cost increase has been the biggest in the first-price segment of alcoholic drinks. Big price increases inevitably lead to a sales drop. White wines continue their market conquest, and dry wines are becoming more popular.

As for alternative packaging solutions, they are likely to go through unprecedented changes, for instance because there are major problems in glass bottle supply.”

On a regional basis

Bernhard Haider
managing director
ALDI

Bernhard Haider, ALDI’s managing director: “When compiling our wine selection, the well-known big wineries are given more weight, but ALDI is also happy to introduce the wines of small Hungarian family wineries too.

This spring we started cooperating with several new partners, while the old products were given a new packaging. In our summer selection, customers could choose from 3- and 5-litre bag-in-box products as well.” //

31st Budapest Wine Festival

This year’s Budapest Wine Festival took place between 8 and 11 September, and the event was bigger than ever before. The special guest was USA, so visitors had the chance to taste hard to find wines from California, Washington and Oregon. The charity wine auction of the festival and the Hungarian Maltese Charity Service surpassed all expectations: HUF 15,900,000 was raised.

The festival’s main sponsor was SPAR

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PENNY boosts wine selection

In the middle of the grape harvest period, PENNY adds more than 100 new products, including the wines of award-winning Hungarian wineries to its assortment. PENNY sells about 8.7 million bottles of wine annually in its 227 stores, and wine sales were up 10.7% this year. //

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This article is available for reading in Trade magazin 2022/11