Wine Monopoly increasingly sells alcohol-free

VinmonopoletMonopoly.Photo: NTB scanpix / Hagen, Fredrik

The sale of non-alcoholic drinks has been on the rise. A huge trend that is only getting stronger said press contact, Hege-Lill Hagen Asp of Vinmonopolet.

Many started 2019 with some “white” and non-alcoholic weeks, which Vinmonopolet noticed was reflected by sales statistics.

During only in the first two ordinary weeks of the year, sales of non-alcoholic beverages at Vinmonopolet went up by 8.6%. This peaked at 5.6% in the same weeks last year.

‘’The trend is definitely continuing and has become even stronger. We see that people bring some extra alcohol free drinks around the holidays, and now clearly in these white weeks’’ Asp told NTB news.

‘’In addition, there is an “edrutrend” among youth who contribute.’’

Looking at the last few years as a whole, sales of non-alcoholic products have also grown tremendously.

‘’There has been good growth for many years now. In 2017, sales of non-alcoholic beverages increased by 12.2%, while it increased further by 12.7% in 2018” said Asp.

Alko-free trend

Last year, for the first time, larger volumes of non-alcoholic products were sold than strong wines. Alko-free’s sales were 551,000 liters, against 480,000 liters of strong wine.

People buy more alcohol-free beer and wine, but it also applies with cider, and sparkling products.

‘’We see a real bubble trend, also when it comes to the non-alcoholic goods, and this is completely new. 36% of the non-alcoholic goods we sold in 2018 were cider or of the sparkling variety’’ said Asp.

Remembering the non-alcoholic drinks

She believes that people have become better at remembering to buy non-alcoholic goods when, for example, they shop for large companies.

“They make sure to have an alternative for guests who may be driving, are pregnant, or simply not drinking at all” said Asp.

Despite the formidable growth, the non-alcoholic beverage still account for only 0.7% of the total volume Vinmonopolet sells. But if development continues, it could quickly become more.

‘’This is something we welcome, and something that is good for public health. Now it is also exciting to see if the habits from the first “white” weeks last throughout the year’’ said Asp.

© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today