The increase in consumption in several of the categories of alcoholic beverages is one of the remarkable features included in the study presented by NielsenIQ, for the course of organized food retail for 2021.


Monday, January 31, 2022


The growth rate of alcoholic beverages in 2021 is particularly high compared to 2020. Specifically, vodka sales were up 18.4% and rum sales were up 16.5%. Sales for our once "national" drink, whiskey showed an increase of 13.3%. However, the increase in sales, in the category of health food was also high, such as Herbal Drinks (+ 20.9%), as well as frozen vegetables (+ 16.5%).

In 2021, organized food retail closed with a 1.3% increase in sales, according to data from NielsenIQ’s the survey, which analyzed data from retail stores larger than 100 square meters. In fact, as the research company points out, this increase was in contrary to the ominous forecasts due to many market factors.  However, Fast-moving consumer goods (FMCGs) in total saw modest growth, recording an annual increase of 0.7%, and as reported by NielsenIQ, was very close to the company’s estimates at the beginning of the year.

At 1.6%, the increase in the turnover in food - drinks

In sub-categories of fast-moving consumer products, Food & Beverage is the only large category, which showed a significant positive trend (of + 1.6%), while the Personal Care Products, and Household Products decreased in sales value by -1.7% and -2.4% respectively. The total of Bazaar categories (clothing, electrical appliances, books, tools, garden items, car items, home equipment, etc.) showed the largest increase with 14.9%, while the Fresh and Weighing products recorded a slightly positive increase of 0, 3%.

Increased turnover in hypermarkets

The analysis of stores based on different typologies shows that the shops with large halls, with an area of over 2,500 sq.m. (hypermarkets) continued in 2021 to have the largest increase in sales, which amounted to 8.1%. What’s more, the smaller departments, up to 400 sq.m., had sales increase as well, while much more moderate, + 1.5%, which means that buyers choose the convenience of smaller stores for their daily shopping as well. Observing the performance in the different geographic areas, where NielsenIQ deconstructs the market, it is interesting to highlight that according to the analysts, all the areas showed positive trends - with the highest that of the Peloponnese at + 4.5% -, except of Attica, which moved down to -0.4%.

Decrease in sales of disinfectants and cleaning products

While the demand for personal hygiene and care products has increased due to the pandemic, these two categories has recorded the largest decrease for 2021.

In fact, the turnover of antiseptics fell 37.9% while hand soaps recorded a decrease of 17.7%. Of course, this reduction is due to the rationalization of their use, in relation to 2020. Similarly we can interpret the strongly negative trend in household cleaners (-13.9%), as well as in the category of bleach (-12.6%).

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Source: FOODReporter #0651/18-01-2022