Lanson outsells everything – except chicken and chocolate

Lanson Champagne has outsold everything at Sainsbury’s – except chicken fillets and Quality Street chocolates.

The £21.99 Lanson Black Label was the third biggest-selling item, by cash turnover, across the entire Sainsbury’s supermarket estate in the last week of November.

The second biggest-seller was chicken fillets, while the number one item was tins of Quality Street chocolates, both on promotion.

For the first half of that week the wine was discounted by £5 to £21.99, and on Wednesday it was reduced to £14, along with three other Champagnes: Piper Heidsieck, Heidsieck Monopole and its own label Blanc de Noirs.

Daniel Bracegirdle, Sainsbury’s Champagne and French wine buyer, said they were surprised by the scale of demand.

‘It just shows that consumers are still happy to buy a brand of Champagne when they think that it’s a good deal.’

He wouldn’t comment on the fact that priced at £14, Sainsbury’s was making a loss on every bottle sold.

But he did say: ‘We didn’t lose margin on Champagne sales overall during that week. With £4.2m worth of stock sold in seven days it was the best week for Champagne sales at Sainsbury’s since Christmas week in 2007.’

Piper Heidsieck, also on promotion, was the 12th best selling item in the last week of November.

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Written by Giles Fallowfield