French supermarket chain Système U celebrates successful in-store wine festivals

rom Tuesday 26 September to Saturday 7 October, revenue from the in-store wine festivals in Système U supermarkets reached 58 million euros, up 3% on 2022. The group’s 1,600 outlets (Hyper U, Super U, Marché U, U Express and Utile) featured a total 700 listings during the festivals. Posting a 2% increase in sales by volume, “the growth of our in-store wine festivals is therefore not due to inflation but to progress in sales across our network”, stresses Renaud Guerre-Genton, head of the U wine group who feels that “judging by the market, this is a real achievement”.

The supermarket chain is not experiencing declining sales, quite the opposite – it has posted growth for the fourth year in a row, with some best-sellers that are bucking the general trend. “Despite everything that’s said, Bordeaux is performing very well, as are sparkling wines”, comments Guerre-Genton. He adds that “Languedoc, although it was successful, has tread water a little this year”, and more importantly, “alarm bells are going off for Champagne which, it seems, our customers have chosen to steer away from due to the lack of attractively priced listings from our suppliers”.  

The teams at Système U tasted 5,000 wines to establish the listings for the in-store wine festivals and they made no bones about their fears and uncertainties ahead of the thrust due to the impact of inflation. “We were happy with our selection and confident about it, but there’s always some uncertainty due to the weather, how good or bad the news will be and even the rugby World Cup, which encourages beer sales”, admitted Guerre-Genton.