WINE SALES IN SUPERMARKETS GROW AND POLARIZE INTO TWO PRICE RANGES: UNDER 3 EUROS AND OVER 5. SUPERIOR QUALITY WINES ARE ALSO SELLING WELL ACCORDING TO A WINENEWS INTERVIEW WITH SERGIO SOAVI, MARKETING MANAGER OF COOP ITALIA

According to a recent WineNews-Vinitaly survey, there are an increasingly large number of wine enthusiasts (61%) who have turned to supermarket shelves for their wine acquisitions, especially when there are special offers. It is a trend that has also been confirmed in a WineNews interview with Sergio Soavi, the marketing manager of COOP Italia, which is the leading large-scale distribution center in Italy, with 12 billion euros in earnings and 18% of the entire market quota (data from September 2007).

“Overall” – confirmed Soavi – “the sales for wines on special offer have increased, above all, for wines that cost less than 3 euros and those over 5 euros. This is evidence that consumers are polarizing into an ‘hourglass’: there are those who wait to buy high quality wines when there are sales and at the same time, others who drink wine every day and wait for sales (which now occur on almost a daily basis) to acquire wine in the low-end price range, under 3 euros or even 2.50”.

Supermarket shelves are also the most popular place for acquiring table wine. Has this consumer sector changed?
“The table wine consumers, who are the most active protagonists of the daily acquisition of wine, remain unchanged, with possibly even a slight sign of decline”.
If wine enthusiasts have begun to acquire their bottles at the supermarket as well (something that, until a few years ago, was considered a ‘heresy’ by some connoisseurs), this means that something has changed in the way wine is approached by consumers.

“It is a phenomenon that we have noted, given that nowadays it is more difficult for the consumer to go to restaurants with the frequency he might like to. In recent months there have been remarkable increases in the sales of high end wines that are on sale and this might also be because there is a return to the domestic use of higher quality products”.

“Wine” – added Soavi – “is considered an element in relations as well as for consumption: when you invite someone to your home or you go as a guest, you try to give higher quality products. If you find them at supermarkets at more advantageous market conditions, you are happier to buy them there”.

Apart from these social mutations, however, there are also other reasons that have attracted wine enthusiasts to large-scale distribution centers.

“There has been an improvement in the overall qualitative offer of wine in supermarkets; the price ranges are different from those 7 or 8 years ago. The right environment has been created and there has also been a minimal investment in employee training. As well, producers have made the effort to create contacts with large-scale distributors in order to have a more tranquil rapport, without having to depend on third parties, or middlemen, which has thus also brought the consumer closer. Today, there are wines made by excellent producers on large-scale distribution center shelves, with a correct quality-price relation, and without following just the usual big names that don’t need this distribution channel because they work at different levels and with different positioning”.

Soavi concluded, “We don’t do commercial politics by selling already well-known products at cheap prices. It is not the large-scale distributor’s goal or, at least, not the COOP’s”.