Aluminium closures hold on to market share as still wine market remains flat in 2021

Overall still wine consumption worldwide still struggled to reach pre-pandemic levels in 2021, but aluminium closures held its market share in this sector. According to IWSR Drinks Market Analysis* global wine consumption continues its long-term downward trajectory, with volumes decreasing by -1% in 2021. However, the global wine market saw some bounce back from losses in 2020. According to IWSR, on-trade wine consumption grew by 16% in 2021, and duty-free and travel retail volumes (DFTR) grew by over 130% versus wine sales in 2020.

Duty-free and travel retail (DFTR) sales in Europe, which is by far the largest travel retail wine market, gained over 160% in volume in 2021, after travel restrictions obviously affected this area of business in 2020. The European market accounted for close to 70% of all sales in this sector.

For those wines using aluminium closures, Euromonitor International** reports that sales of still grape wine with screwcaps kept stable in the second year of the pandemic, advancing by 0,5%. The global market share of aluminium screwcaps in this segment remained stable in 2021 at 32,3%. In Europe, the market share also kept stable at slightly above 32%. Just under 7 billion bottles with aluminium closures were sold globally, retaining more than 35% of off-trade sales, according to the Euromonitor figures.

Reacting to these latest statistics, Anja Holthoff-Schlegel, Aluminium Closures Group representative, said, “Global wine consumption is still not back on track. It is encouraging to see the recovery of DFTR sales, which are strongly up. But the hangover of lockdowns into the first half of 2021 in some markets, and even longer in others, meant the on-trade sales were still muted. Off-trade sales did fall back as some people returned to bars and restaurants. Aluminium screwcaps still account for one third of all still wine sales and we are confident that, as volumes recover in 2022, the trend of growing market share for these closures will continue.”

* About IWSR Drinks Market Analysis: IWSR is the leading source of data and analysis on the global beverage alcohol market.

** About Euromonitor International: Euromonitor International is the world's leading independent provider of strategic market research. We create data and analysis on thousands of products and services around the world.