The Swedish population has reached 10.9 million of people over the last years where almost 1 million is living in Stockholm.

Sweden’s wine market is considered a very solid one, good and mature market where brand awareness and loyalty of consumers are the key to the healthiness of it. New trend can enter the market thanks also to the ubiquity of the Systembolaget, state-owned monopoly retailer, and its ability to implement new product through consistent merchandising strategies.

The only concern can be caused by the fact that the most regular consumers are becoming more conservative and less experimental on new products, preferring to drink what they already know. Most of these drinkers are boomers and tend to become more price sensitive even though are very loyal to the brand they know. The Systembolaget is importing each year something like 230milion litres of wine and 200 million litres of beers. A major share of the market is taken by alternative packaging such bag in box, PET, cans, dominating almost half of the market, where red wines are preferred compared to white wine. Italian wines are, especially in red and bubbles category, among the most appreciated. All other countries have a good growth in all categories and formats.

Italian wine is representing the 27% of the market where France is covering the 15% of it in volume. The wine engagement of the country is very high, considering half of the total population are considered regular drinkers. Millennials seems to represent the group of consumers spending more per bottle of wine compared to other demographics.

Sparkling wine consumption has risen more and more over the past years, whereas the consumers tend to prefer Prosecco and Cava instead of Champagne due to the lower prices. Red wines consumptions, on the other hand, is decreasing, giving a hard time especially to those country where red are the main wines produced such as Chile, Australia, South Africa and Argentina. Over the 85% of the wines imported in Sweden is sold through the Systembolaget , making the one deciding trends. Organic wines are representing almost 50% of the market now in Sweden, thanks also to the monopoly who is believing and investing in this product category. 

There are not many importers in the Swedish market, few of them are very big and collaborating with smaller ones. Something very interesting of the Swedish market is the possibility to participate to tender. Tenders is still the preferable way to develop important volumes through the Systembolaget, but horeca market, has a more and more importance, thanks to the raise of the wine culture among the younger generation.