Rum shows biggest growth during lockdown

Rum has been crowned the ‘drink of lockdown’, as latest figures show that the drink enjoyed the biggest growth across all spirits during the period.

In the three months from April to June 2020, figures from the WSTA show that 38% more rum was sold than in the same period in 2019, equating to an extra 1.3m bottles. Total rum sales were worth £119m in the quarter alone.

Over the last 12 months, rum has enjoyed 8% volume gains and is now worth £430m, placing it behind only whiskies, vodkas and gins in value terms.

The biggest growth was found in the flavoured and spiced rum category, which between April and June grew 53% by volume to make up 3.4m bottles of the overall category.

The popularity of flavoured and spiced rums during lockdown saw the variety outsell white rums over a three-month period for the first time.

The strong performance of rum, as well as gin, shows that consumers looked to indulge their love of cocktails and explore new flavours during the spring even though pubs and bars couldn’t open.

Despite off-trade growth in gin slowing over recent months, this trend was reversed during lockdown with 22% volume gains and 27% increases in sales by value. Including flavoured gins, total gin sales over the last 12 months were £1.1bn, a growth of 15%.

With pubs, bars and restaurants closed, it was inevitable that off-trade sales would increase – in volume terms, total alcohol sales in supermarkets and shops are up 8% over 12 months and 35% over the lockdown period.

The WSTA’s figures show, however, that the growth in off-trade sales did not off-set the losses seen by the closure of the on-trade – total alcohol sales slumped 20% by volume, showing that the suggestion that Brits boozed their way through lockdown isn’t quite accurate.

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