Premium Wines with Cork Finish Continue to
Exceed Alternatives in Pricing and Sales Volume

The study of top 100 brands shows that a little over two thirds were cork finished. The cork finished brands show an 11.2% volume increase over the same period ending in 2009. This compares to a -1.3% decline for brands finished with alternative closures. The cork finished brands enjoyed a pricing advantage of $1.68 per bottle over brands finished with alternative closures.

Sales by Price Category
When sales activity is examined by price category, it becomes clear that performance differences occurred evenly, and were not a function of the predilection for alternative closure brands to occupy the lower pricing segments.

Pricing categories of $6-$9, $9-$12, $12-$15 and >$15 were used to measure the distribution of closure type. Cork was relatively evenly distributed, while half of the brands with alternative closures were in the $6-$9 group.

Changes in case sales shows that cork finished brands gained 772,599 cases over the 52-week period (+11.2%). The greatest increase occurred in the $9-$12 category where cork brands registered an increase of over 500K cases. Brands with alternative closures declined by 93,328 cases (-1.3%). The largest decrease was incurred in the $6-$9 category, where volume fell by 111K cases.

The year-ago comparisons are based on the same brands. There were no “new” brands or changes in closure assignment between the year ending in February 2009 and the period ending in 2010.

The pricing comparison shows cork finished brands enjoyed a weighted average pricing advantage of $1.68 per bottle over brands with alternative closures. Cork brands displayed higher prices in each category, with the closest - $.12 in the $6-$9 group and the highest - $.58 in the $9-$12 segment.

Nielsen data reflects retail pricing net of discounts, so this comparison does not necessarily translate into revenue received by the winery. It does show that cork finished brands realized volume growth with higher prices than brands finished with alternative closures.

Data for this study was provided from wine sales reported by A.C. Nielsen for the 52-week period ending February 6, 2010. The study focused on premium domestic table wine, which for this purpose consists of wines packaged in 750ml bottles priced at $6 and up.

Closure type was assigned to the 100 largest selling brands based on the predominant closure being either “cork” or “alternative”. In most cases there was an obvious assignment. In only two instances did the brand have roughly equal distribution between closures. Neither of these occurrences were closer than 60/40. The top 100 brands represent 84% of the case volume reported from over 1,500 total brands measured by the scanned data.

download full version as pdf