Wines and spirits H1 travel retail sales slide 2.5%

Generation Research figures presented at the TFWA World Exhibition Opening Conference show global travel retail wines and spirits sales fell -2.5% in the first half of 2015.

“Intense and lasting change” has impacted the global travel retail environment, the president of the TFWA has said

TFWA president Erik Juul-Mortensen presented the data as part of his State of the Industry address in Cannes this morning.

“We are indeed experiencing a period of intense and lasting change,” he said, describing the combined impact of geopolitical tensions, the continuing slowdown in China, Russia and Brazil, and currency volatility as a “watershed moment” for the industry

Global travel retail and duty free sales fell -0.2% in the first half of 2015, according to Generation.

Europe saw the biggest decline, with H1 sales falling -9.3% against 2014 (all reporting in US dollars). The Middle East was flat (+0.1%), with the rest of the world repoting sales increases (Amercas +1.9%, Asia Pacific +6.5%, Africa +9.0%).

In terms of category performance, confectionery and fine food was the only sector to post a greater decline that wine and spirits (-5.3%). Fashion and accessories was the star H1 performer at +3.5%.

The inflight channel continued to see sales fall (-6.7%), with cruise and ferry retail also contracting (4.0%). Airport retail was also pegged back in the first half of the year with sales declining -2.1%.

The only channel to see growth was the downtown/border and “other” segment, which grew +4.3%.

Juul-Mortensen said the falling sales comes against a backdrop of strong global passenger numbers, which increased 6.2% from January to July 2015 (ACI figures). Middle East posted the biggest gain (+10.6%), followed by Asia Pacific (+8.5%), Latin America (+6.7%), North America (+4.9%), Europe (4.9%) and Africa (+2.3%).

“When it comes to productviity per passenger, our peformnce is unimpressive,” said Juul-Mortensen, noting the industry’s “failure” to convert the majority of passengers on to customers.

The TFWA World Exhibition & Conference continues until Friday 23 October.