UK gin sales reach £2.1bn in 2021

Sales of gin in the UK started to recover last year with almost 80 million bottles sold, according to new data from the Wine and Spirit Trade Association (WSTA).

Gin sales over the course of 2021 in the UK reached £2.1 billion (US$1.58bn) in value. The WSTA cited CGA data for the on-trade and Nielsen data for the off-trade.

The WSTA highlighted that gin sales in the UK had previously dropped by almost £1bn in value from £2.7bn (US$3.5bn) in 2019 to £1.9bn (US$2.5bn) in 2020, after the hospitality sector was affected by lockdowns.

In 2020, more than 78m bottles were sold in shops and online – compared with 64m bottles sold in the off-trade in 2019. Volume sales in the on-trade plummeted by 61% in 2020 and value slumped by 60%.

Miles Beale, chief executive of the WSTA, said the figures over the past two years showed the “punishing losses faced by distillers across the UK”.

He called on the UK government to amend its proposal to modernise the alcohol duty system to allow distilleries to benefit from the Small Producers Relief scheme and tax all drinks at the same rate per unit.

Beale called the proposal a “missed opportunity” as the spirits duty rate will remain the same and include 27 tax rates for wine.

The UK hospitality industry will soon have to return to the 20% VAT rate after chancellor Rishi Sunak revealed his spring statement this week.