Cognac sales back to force? VS quality now more sold than XO

Cognac sales went up by  32,4% in March 2010, compared to March 2009!

Worldwide sales went down (only) by 3,1% in 2009… that’s quite good actually. Between april 2009 and march 2010 the following amount of bottles were shipped:

• 47,3 millions bottles Alena (USA, Canada, Mexico)
• 42,6 millions bottles to Europe
• 41,2 millions bottles  to Asia

Makes up a total of 136,1 million bottles of Cognac. If one looks at 2007, almost reaching 160 million bottles – this 2009/2010 figure seems to be quite low.

96, 4% of all bottles were exported, only 3,6% were sold in France.

Now also very interesting is this graph: It shows us, that the VS quality now is more sold than the old guality bottles such as XO. The trend from 2007 to 2009 seems to be over for the moment.

Firstly it will a matter of the luxury market, secondly perhaps also connected to the availability of old qualities in the Cognac region. Remember: The higher grade Cognacs have to age – this means time and stocking costs.

Basically nothing really has changed if one regards the Top 10 importing countries, regarding the order. But everywhere, Cognac imports go down.

Note, that China imports basically remain stable: the crisis seems not to affect them. USA and Singapore suffer heavily – also note that Singapore is a reseller country, which distributes to other Asian countries. Theu do not drink all of the 17.6 million bottles on their own.

Scandinavian countries also import less, now, the only country where Cognac imports go up is Hong Kong. A good choice from Martell, to open their high-end experience boutique at the Hong Kong airport (Cognac Expert reported).

Interesting also, if one looks at how VS and older grades are imported: The Asian countries almost don’t even import VS or three star Cognacs, only the expensive and matured stuff for those consumers. On the other hand the US and UK drinkers seems to mix their Cognac and neat drinkers are more or less rare – according to these BNIC stats.

Let’s hope the Cognac business comes back to force and gets stable in the near future.

Thanks to the BNIC for those numbers.

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