Carlsberg leads in Cyprus beer beer sales, KEO in wines

Carlsberg continues to be the best selling beer in Cyprus, although smaller brands are gradually eroding its lead, while rival KEO is the household name when it comes to wine sales.
According to the latest industry survey by IWSR Storechecks, Carlsberg, brewed locally by Ph. Photiades, was still in the lead in 2010 with a 51.9% market share, losing ground from 52.7% in 2009 and 54.9% in 2008. Arch rival KEO, too, saw its share decline marginally to 32.4% last year from 33.5% in 2009 and 34.5% in 2008.
Leon, the recently revived local beer brewed by Photiades, has seen its share of the market rising to 5.5% from 4.8% in 2009 and 4.3% in 2008.
The beer consumption market also lost ground in last year, dropping to 385,250 hectolitres or some 32,500 less than in 2009, due to the falling number in tourist arrivals and growing share of the imports. Local brews lost 9.74% in sales, while imports gained 3.31%.
Heineken, distributed by KEO, is by far the best-selling imported beer with a 3.63% market share last year, compared to 3.35% in 2009 and 2.1% in 2008. Next was Corona (Photiades Distributors) with a 1.5% market share, from 1.2% in 2009, Stella Artois (Desras) with a 0.93% market share, from 0.89% in 2009, Hollandia imported by Orphanides Supermarkets with a 0.90% market share compared to 0.93% in 2009 and Guinness (Photiades Distr.) with 0.59%, up from 0.50% in 2009.
The IWSR survey predicts that sales will continue to fall in the current year to 357,500 hectolitres, of which 315,000 will be local brews and 42,500 imports.
The KEO-Photiades rivalry continues in the wine segment as well, where KEO maintains a lead in the 931,000-case market, with a 25.8% market share. However, this is significantly below the 2009 sales figure of a 30.3% market share. SODAP is second with a 22% share, up from 19.4% in 2009, while LOEL sales dropped to 6.4% from 7.3% in 209. Rounding up the top five wine sellers are ETKO with a 3.43% market share, from 2.9% in 2009 and Kyperounda with 2.6% in 2010, compared to 2.1% the year earlier.
Total wine sales dropped to the lowest level since 2001 when IWSR started its records. Local wines account for 73% of all sales, compared to 27% for imports, a ratio that has improved for importers from a 77/23% split in 2009.
The best-selling wines by origin were the Greeks with a 6.4% market share in 2010, French wines (4.7%), Portuguese (3.8%), Italian (3.4%) and Chilean wines at 3.1%.
The best-selling brands in 2010 were the Portuguese Mateus, the Greek Tsantali, the French Eschenauer Prince Oliver, the Italian San Marco and the Chilean Concha y Toro.
The IWSR report also found that white wines outsold reds by 51.1% to 45.6%, while rosé wines accounted for a mere 3.22%, while the data for 2009 showed whites in the lead with 52%, reds with 44.9% and rosé wines with 3.1%.
The report predicts that sales will continue to fall in the current year to 904,000 cases with local wines losing ground and dropping to 70.2% while imports rise to 29.8%, with a preference for Greek, Chilean and Portuguese wines.