Trends and implications for Spanish wine sales in the US market

Purpose - Spanish wine sales have grown quite rapidly in the US market during the past few years. The purpose of this paper is to examine this trend, discuss potential reasons, and identify opportunities for maintaining and increasing Spanish wine sales in the US market. Design/methodology/approach - The objectives are achieved by analyzing ACNielsen scan data from 2002 to 2005 and other secondary data on US wine consumers and trends. Findings - The results indicate that Americans perceive red Spanish wine quite positively and are moving up in price point expenditures. However, sales of Spanish white wines remain rather fixed at specific price points. In addition, Spanish wine is losing market share to other imported wines, except for certain price points, but is performing well against US wines. Practical implications - This paper suggests ten opportunities for maintaining and/or increasing Spanish wine sales in the US market. Many of these suggestions are also useful for other countries desiring to export wine to the US. Originality/value - This paper is one of the first of its kind to provide an in-depth analysis of ACNielsen Scan data on Spanish wines sales in the USA. In addition, it provides extensive information on the US wine market, trends, and new market segments such as the Millennial and Hispanic markets.