Nielsen | WhaleTales Blog by Chris von Ulmenstein

Beer is a declining threat to wine sales, Malbec is big, Millennials and Gen X are key to future wine sales, wine blends have a role to play, and fine wine enjoys support despite the recession. These are some of the findings of American ‘Emerging Trends within Beverage Alcohol’, a presentation by Nielsen, and assembled from retail scans, consumer surveys, and other information sources. The presentation was attended by American Joe Roberts of 1WineDude blog, who summarised the key findings on his blog. These were some of the highlights for him:

* Wine sales are growing

* Sales of wine at $20 or more showed a strong increase in November/December 2013. Wine sales in the $12 – 15 price range are also showing growth.

* The share of beer is declining relative to wine and spirits, and adspend is now below 50% of total alcohol adspend.

* Millennial (36 years and younger) and Gen X (30 – 50 year olds) wine buyers are increasingly buying wine, at Continue reading →

Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines

* Siobhan Thompson has been appointed as new CEO of Wines of South Africa (WOSA). She moves across from Distell, where she was Global Marketing Head, having had past responsibilities for Liqueurs, Amarula, and Brandy and Cognac. She headed Baby Foods at Colman Foods, and Consumer and Retail Research at Gilbeys, marketed the UCT Graduate School of Business, was a brand manager at Yardley, and a researcher at Nielsen and TNS Research Surveys.

* Comair has taken delivery of four new Boeing 737-800 aircraft, which will help the airline to reduce its carbon emissions and to drive down costs for its British Airways service, similar to its kulula fleet replacement. A threatened carbon tax will drive up costs for airlines, said Comair CEO Erik Venter, already under pressure from the weak Rand. This could have a negative impact on tourism, he said.

* Snow is expected on Table Mountain, just a month after the last snowfall, Continue reading →