12 January, 2001

Gulp down your savings the bubbly way

In the British Sainsbury's supermarkets the turnover on champagne has now passed that of baked beans. Danes too seem to appreciate sparkling wines more and more.

We still wait for the total sales of 2005, but they are likely to confirm a rising tendency from the first to the second half of last year. Here is my best example to prove that new luxurious times have arrived in some parts of Denmark.

Changed patterns of consumption
I was rather surprised when I in Danish supermarket Kvickly in the island Amager in Copenhagen found boxes of champagne for sales for 1.000 kroner (approximately 130 euros). Later in the year there was an even cheaper brand of champagne for sale for 650 kroner (approximately 87 euros) per box. It does not get much cheaper even in Champagne (Mere hos Coops Nettorvet).

No matter the quality - I did not taste the champagne - it tells me, that the patterns of consumption in Amager must have moved into a completely different galaxy, since I lived in the same neighbourhood in the depressing and ever depressed late eighties.

The latest numbers from the association of the wine marchants in Denmark, Vin og Spiritusorganisationen i Danmark (VSOD) confirms the tendency. Danes bought 25 percent more champagne in 2004 than in 2003, and in the first half of 2005, the growth was seven percent compared with the same period the year before, said newspapers Nordjyske og Fyens stiftidender in their New Year edition.

Danes gulp down savings
Lifestyle expert of public broadcaster DR, Christine Feldthaus, explains to DR Penge the new and expensive hobby with the fact, that many Danes have a lot of money to spend thanks to big savings in their houses and appartments due to fastrising marketprices and good pensions.

According to the chairman of the VSOD, Peter Schaltz, the height of the season of champagne is still News Years Eve, but sales are rising around Midsummer Day and final exams celebrations too, he says to the newspapers.

Champagne passes baked beans
The tendency recurs in Great Britain. Of course it is the bubbly nation - the main export market for champagne throughout all times - but still.

The richest part of the British - middle class included - have seen a big rise of their wealth during the last years, where prices of houses have risen dramatically as in Denmark. Shortly before Christmas the daily newspaper Daily Telegraph wrote that the supermarket Sainsbury's now shave more turnover on champagne than on baked beans.

In the first nine months of 2005 the British imported more than 22 million bottles of champagne, which is a growth of nine percent compared to the year before, says
Comité Interprofessionel du Vin de Champagne.

På dansk

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