TWE releases six canned wines as category booms

Treasury Wine Estates has released a selection of wines in cans to capitalise on the booming category.

Wine in a can is a growing phenomenon in Australia and shows no sign of slowing down.

Earlier this year, Dan Murphy’s head of wine says he expects sales of canned wine to grow exponentially in the liquor chain.

George Radman told News Corp: “Our customers have embraced wine in a can due to its convenience. These products are lighter, typically less expensive and more portable than bottled wine. Based on the growth of canned craft beer over the last few years we have already seen a huge shift in consumer attitudes, it’s now recognised that a can doesn’t mean compromising on quality.”

In July, Pernod Ricard launched Jacob’s Creek Moscato in cans in Australia, following its success in the Canadian market.

Eric Thomson, Pernod Ricard Australia Marketing Director, said: “We are seeing Australian consumers driving demand for new innovative pack formats in wine; and cans seem to be leading this trend.” 

TWE has released six wines in cans, all available in 250ml with a RRP $24 for 4 pack/$7 per can. 

They are:

• Squealing Pig Spritzed Rose

• Squealing Pig Spritzed Pinot Grigio

• T’Gallant Spritzed Prosecco 

• T’Gallant Spritzed Moscato 

• A’tivo Rose Spritzer with a twist of raspberry 

• A’tivo Crisp White Spritzer with a twist of lime

Bringing new drinkers into the wine category

The move into canned wine follows a three-year usage and attitudes study that involved TWE speaking to 3000 consumers to better understand how they shop and why they drink.

Kylie Farquhar, TWE NSW/ACT Sales Manager said the findings of the study suggested a focus on refreshment would bring new drinkers into the wine category.

“One of the key segments that we’re focusing on, not only this year but into the future, is all about refreshment and of course rosé, which is pretty much the biggest growth segment at the moment at more than 10% of the market,” she said. “We believe that bringing wine into that whole refreshment category is the biggest incremental growth activity that we could do in the next 12 months and beyond.”

She noted that the RTD segment, which was in decline for a long time, is now returning to growth and worth $94million. 

Also Aperol Spritz has seen 80% growth over the last 12 months.

“Those products are clean and crisp, they are sessionable, they are spritzed and they’re chilled,” she said. “So we believe that this is where opportunity knocks within the wine category.”

Farquhar also noted that the US sells around $15million worth of wine in a can per year, while the UK market is experiencing 38% growth at the moment. The top selling varieties are usually either sparkling or spritzed and very varietal driven.

“From that, all of the cans that we’re launching into the market right now are spritzed,” she said. “They’re all 250ml serves, they’re all 8% alcohol and they’re all wine, so they’re not an RTD. They are 100% wine based and something very new to the market.

“We are going to put a campaign together over summer which is all about opening up that afternoon refreshment session and giving people an opportunity to potentially move away from the dominance of beer and into canned wine as an alternative.

“Our campaign is what we’re calling ‘The Big Chill’ so chill it, ice it, share it. By doing that, we believe together we will drive wine into more occasions, we will drive more foot traffic into stores and venues and then obviously a key part of this is trying to inspire new consumers into the wine market.”