The own-label alcoholic drinks market has enjoyed steady growth in recent years, rising from £2.38 billion in 2008 to £2.66 billion in 2013, a 12% increase. However, this lags behind the 19% increase enjoyed by the wider own-label food and drink market, underlining the limited success of own-label alcoholic drinks. Wines have been the success story for own-label drinks, with a highly fragmented and poorly branded market enabling the own-labels to claim market-leading shares. Own-label spirits also perform well, enabling consumers to enjoy drinks such as vodka and brandy at lower prices.

However, own-label drinks remain a minority consideration in many other lucrative categories such as beer and cider. These are well-branded markets, and this has stifled the progress of own-label alternatives. Own-label brands in these markets have also been slow to react to trends such as flavoured drinks, further limiting the potential for growth.

Although the economy is in recovery, this has not yet translated to a significant increase in real disposable incomes. This means that there is still scope for own-brand drinks to increase their share of the market. However, as confidence improves, brands are likely to become more appealing to consumers looking to relieve recession fatigue. If own-label drinks are to remain part of consumers’ drinking repertoires in the coming years, then they will have to provide consistently high quality and innovative products.

This report focuses on off-trade sales of own-label alcoholic drinks, although references to branded drinks are made throughout the report. Retailer exclusives such as Tesco Ogio and Sainsbury’s Mondelli wines are also included. Own-label drinks are controlled and managed by retailers, carrying either the retailer’s name or an exclusively created name. These broadly fall into three tiers: Premium (eg Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference), Standard (eg Tesco) and Value/Economy (Waitrose essentials).

The report excludes sales of both branded and own-label soft drinks.

Value figures throughout this report are at retail selling prices (rsp) unless stated otherwise. Market sizes at constant 2013 prices are devised using Mintel’s alcoholic drinks deflator.

Crown copyright material is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the Queen’s Printer for Scotland.