Buckie sales on increase in England

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Buckie sales increasing in England

 

That guy Wilson from Chandlers is like Comical Ali ...

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Buckie's making big bucks down Date: 11 March 2010

By MARK SMITH

SALES of Buckfast tonic wine have soared across Britain due to English youths copying the hard-drinking antics of Scottish teenagers on YouTube, a leading academic has claimed.

 

 

? Buckfast's distributors say the profile of customers is changing with shops reporting an increase in sales to the middle class. Picture: Toby Williams

 

Figures released yesterday showed Buckfast is now the best selling fortified wine in the UK with annual sales worth ?31 million ? a rise of 40 per cent in a year.

 

This means Buckfast now sells more that well-known brands such as Harvey's Bristol Cream, Cockburns and Croft Original.

 

Produced by a community of monks at Buckfast Abbey in Devon, the drink has become synonymous with anti-social behaviour in Scotland, linked to 5,300 crimes in the Strathclyde Police area in the past three years.

 

However, the sales surge was greeted by Buckfast distributors, JD Chandlers, as evidence that the drink was shedding its image as a drink mainly consumed by teenagers in housing estates in Scotland.

 

They claimed it was now popular among "middle class, middle aged" consumers all over the UK.

 

But campaigners warned last night that the big increase in sales was down to the beverage's popularity spreading among problem teenage drinkers south of the Border.

 

Dr Steve Alexander, a Nottingham University expert on the effects of alcohol and caffeine, insisted Buckfast's success could be down to "copycat" behaviour among English teenagers.

 

He said: "I think what we are seeing here is what you might call the YouTube effect.

 

"There is an element of rebellion in consuming this drink, and when teenagers here in England see on YouTube and Facebook Scottish teenagers claiming to drink two bottles in 40 seconds and other claims like that, they are trying to copy it.

 

"I would like to see more research done on this, but that would explain where the increase in sales is coming from. It is not widely available in England in superstores, but obviously there are corner shops selling it all over the country.

 

"With its high quantity of alcohol and caffeine, clearly this can be a dangerous drink when consumed over a long period of time so I would be concerned if it is taking off in England in the same way as it has in certain parts of Scotland, such as Lanarkshire."

 

Dr Alexander's comments appeared to be backed up by the number of videos on YouTube last night showing young Scots downing bottles of the drink.

 

One, called "Buckfast Man ? 7 Second Down", showed a young man guzzling down a bottle of the drink in just seven seconds.

 

Another, called "40 seconds down" showed a Scots youngster downing two bottles in just 40 seconds.

 

Despite the concerns over the sales surge,

 

Jim Wilson, from JD Chandler, insisted the drink was no longer the preserve of teenage troublemakers and the rise in sales was due to the drink going upmarket.

 

He said: "Anecdotally, we have widespread reports that the profile of our customers is changing. Many shops are reporting an increase in those buying a bottle of Buckfast that don't fit the image you might find in the media.

 

"We have shops reporting an increase in sales to those that you might consider middle class, in their 30s. It is growing in popularity among ordinary, every day people.

 

Industry "bible" Off Licence News said of the Buckfast surge in sales: "It's a remarkable achievement for a brand with no advertising budget and one which, perhaps, demonstrates there's no such thing as bad publicity."