Fine wine sales surge for Tesco

The news comes as a welcome boost for Tesco after a difficult start to 2012 for the UK’s biggest retailer, whose UK boss quit earlier this week after the company’s first profit warning in 20 years.

Tesco said the rise in sales of fine wine followed a revamp of the range led by fine wine product development manager Laura Jewell MW – which it said was in response to ‘growing demand for fine wine as customers increasingly trade up and treat themselves to affordable luxuries’.

The range was relaunched in June last year and is refreshed every three to four months both in stores and online, focusing mainly on wines priced at £15-30.

Previously labelled in-store as ‘The Collection’, the Fine Wine section has been given new signage, while the online range has been increased to more than 300 wines.

‘As our rising sales figures indicate, a growing number of our customers are prepared to pay a little bit more for a top-quality bottle of wine,’ said Jewell.

‘The selection will be refreshed every few months to encourage these customers to continue to trade up and experiment with new wines.’

In January, Tesco revealed that same-store UK sales – across all departments – had fallen for a fourth consecutive quarter, leading to UK director Richard Brasher’s departure, to be replaced by group CEO Philip Clarke.