Asda selling French wine by the vin-load
French wine is back in fashion with consumers at Asda since the supermarket chain gave more shelf space to the country’s bottles and introduced price offers on some of its premium wines.
The Asda wine team were seeing some falls in French sales across the supermarkets in general but found that consumers were keen to buy when good French wines were displayed prominently in store. So Asda decided to give more space to the French stuff and sales have increased by over 46%. Furthermore, Asda wine buyer Michelle King says that, ‘After taste testing a premium wine which has been on offer, customers are returning to buy it even when it is at full price.’
Chablis, Sancerre and Pouilly Fume are among those that have been selling by the ‘vin-load’, according to Asda, which has been working to increase knowledge of French ranges among shoppers. Michelle said, ‘The French wine market in the UK has been in decline for a number of years as competition grows from the New World. In addition, people can find French wines confusing and this has contributed to the Old World becoming less favoured.’
However, Asda’s move has ‘sparked a real interest in French wine,’ said Michelle and has given the retailer an 8.6% share of the French wine market in the UK, up from 5.8% compared to this time last year.
