Accolade Wines has responded to the challenging conditions of the 120-million case UK wine market by establishing an in-house research unit to figure out what the UK consumer want to drink, where they want to find it and when they’re going to open it. At a cost of GBP6m over the last five years to the company, this knowledge base is expected to contribute to the development of new and innovative lines for the UK, including a greater emphasis on low-alcohol products.
Duty tax rises in the UK will see the average bottle price for wine exceed GBP5 for the first time in 2012, while the country’s Office of National Statistics forecast that consumer wages will fall by 3.5% in real terms. So, with sales in the UK of 19.9 m cases (well above its Australian sales of 9.8 million cases), Accolade has much to gain from getting its product mix right. It has set itself a target of achieving 10% of its annual gross profit to new products and new packaging formats.
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