Beer loses out to wine
Overall consumption of alcoholic drinks among the senior population is forecast to drop 42% to one billion litres by 2010 as consumers are switching from beer to spirits and wine.
Overall consumption of beer is forecast to halve by 2010 in favour of the preference for stronger drinks. Pure alcohol is set to rise by 9.3% to 174m litres in 2010.
The British love affair with wine continues to blossom. Wine is the only category showing growth from £2.4bn in 2005 to £3bn in 2010 and volume sales will have almost caught up with beer at 415 million litres. Matthew Adams, consumer markets analysts at Datamonitor said,“Senior consumers perceive wine as being the healthiest alcoholic beverage or the one, that does the least harm when consumed in moderation.
