Following my previous post back in December 2023 on Single Malt Price Inflation in the UK, I have updated the data set during July 2024 to review how a selected number of Scotch whisky brands have fared using Amazon UK data.
As an example, Jura 18yo Single Malt scotch whisky 70cl has jumped in price to its highest ever price within the time period from 2013 to July 2024 at £78.25 per bottle, with the current pricing at a slightly lower figure of £74.90 (albeit still higher than the figure of £66.79 back in December 2023).
The Scotch Whisky Association (SWA) had previously reported a survey conducted in 2022 that costs increasing for whisky producers in 2022 and expected to continue into 2023. However, at the same time we are also seeing recent reports from major whisky producers – such as Diageo – highlighting the headwinds affecting their businesses, which in turn has resulted in brand owners reacting in different ways, from maintaining or even increasing their marketing spend to support their brands; to reductions in pricing to allow higher sales and targets being achieved.
One such example of price reduction to drive sales can be seen on the graph below, where Old Pulteney 18yo Single Malt scotch whisky 70cl has moved temporarily from a price positioned just below £115 to around £100, before coming back to its current price of £119.93.
The price variation for Premium Single Malts (18yo-21yo) varies greatly by brand as per the table below. The combined pricing of the brands selected has increased by 3.5% from £111.06 in December 2023 to £114.98 in July 2024.
Three brands are currently at their highest price level since 2013: Glenmorangie 18yo, Balblair 18yo and Bunnahabhain 18yo. The lowest priced brand within the data set is The Singleton 18yo at £73.59 and the highest is Talisker 18yo at £182.34.
The Entry Level Single Malts may differ in approach from their premium variants. For example, Glenfiddich 12yo is currently at its highest price position since 2013 at £37.99, with an apparent frequent bout of promotional activity to drive sales based on its pricing graph above, whilst the price position on its premium variant Glenfiddich 18yo has not varied as frequently as per the graph below.
The price variation for Entry Level Single Malts (10yo-12yo) varies by brand from £26 to £59.78 as per the table below. The combined pricing of the brands selected has increased by 6.2% from £36.85 in December 2023 to £39.14 in July 2024. Therefore at a faster rate of increase than their premium variants (at +3.5%) however with price reductions being used more frequently as part of promotions to drive sales.
Every company will have a different price and promotional strategy for their brands, which may also differ depending on format (bottle size), channel and country. This data set is merely a snapshot of the Single Malt Pricing in the UK using Amazon data available in the public domain.
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