ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION & THE BUYING CHANNELS
Alcohol Consumption
The national gastronomic culture is young, reflecting a hunter-fisher culture with roots in Lapland and Karelia in the northwest of Russia, and Prohibition from 1919 to 1932. The way Finns eat and drink owes much to Sweden, Germany and Russia.
The wine boom arrived in 1987 when the father of Finnish wine culture, Juha Berglund, opened a wine accessory shop called Decanter, created the first and still only wine magazine, Viinilehti, two years later, before purchasing Ch. Carsin in Bordeaux in 1990. This led to an initially slow but growing interest in wine and the people behind it. In the early 2000s, magazines were filled with stories of wines, sommeliers and wine & food pairing, and even a Friday morning TV wine spot by your correspondent.
From the turn of the century, a general trend towards health-consciousness has influenced the alcohol market.
Younger people consume less alcohol than the baby boomers and the overall consumption per capita has been decreasing sharply since 2004 - from 12 litres of alcohol per capita to close to 9 litres in 2020.
Wine has enjoyed a relatively stable share of around 7-8 litres of wine (averaging 12% of alcohol content) per adult while the decrease in spirit consumption has been more dramatic. Beer still holds pole position but has had a mild decrease in sales over the ten years.
Finnish alcohol consumption in % per beverage group 2019 (100% alcohol, source STM)
The Buying Channels
Finland has an alcohol monopoly – Alko - but, unlike other monopoly-run countries, following recent – 2018 – legislation, all alcohol with a strength of 5.5% or less can now be bought from independent retail stores. Previously the limit was 4,7%. Such a small change might appear unimportant, but it transformed the market. Practically 90% of beer & alco-seltzer sales moved from the monopoly to the independents. Now 64% of all sales come from retailers with only 13% from the monopoly.
The pandemic closure of almost all HoReCa inevitably affected sales. Travel retail also suffered the same fate with virtually zero passenger traffic. This helped both Alko and the independents in 2020-2021 as their sales grew. But from 2022 the situation has been returning towards 2019 figures. Currently HoReCa has a 13% market share, but it has far greater importance in the sale of more premium wines, the creation of trends, and the growth of Finnish wine culture.
Personal imports have always had a big role in our market, thanks to the proximity of Estonia and frequent ferry traffic between Helsinki and Tallinn, with millions of yearly trips. For many, the motive has been to save money by buying in countries with lower duty rates and this sector now represents 10% of all purchased alcohol. Inevitably, this has created a big hole in Finland’s tax revenues.
2019 alcohol market shares of purchased 100% alcohol
2019 Market shares of different purchase channels/purchased in litres
Alcohol Consumption
The national gastronomic culture is young, reflecting a hunter-fisher culture with roots in Lapland and Karelia in the northwest of Russia, and Prohibition from 1919 to 1932. The way Finns eat and drink owes much to Sweden, Germany and Russia.
The wine boom arrived in 1987 when the father of Finnish wine culture, Juha Berglund, opened a wine accessory shop called Decanter, created the first and still only wine magazine, Viinilehti, two years later, before purchasing Ch. Carsin in Bordeaux in 1990. This led to an initially slow but growing interest in wine and the people behind it. In the early 2000s, magazines were filled with stories of wines, sommeliers and wine & food pairing, and even a Friday morning TV wine spot by your correspondent.
From the turn of the century, a general trend towards health-consciousness has influenced the alcohol market.
Younger people consume less alcohol than the baby boomers and the overall consumption per capita has been decreasing sharply since 2004 - from 12 litres of alcohol per capita to close to 9 litres in 2020.
Wine has enjoyed a relatively stable share of around 7-8 litres of wine (averaging 12% of alcohol content) per adult while the decrease in spirit consumption has been more dramatic. Beer still holds pole position but has had a mild decrease in sales over the ten years.