Westons Cider has launched the UK’s ‘first ever’ cider report to analyse the trends and opportunities in the market.

It is available now from Westons’ website and looks at the top brands, flavours and formats, as well as gives advice on merchandising.

The report shows that despite an overall 2.3% decline in the category, convenience shopping missions are growing for cider consumers.

Traditional and craft ciders are growing at 5.2%, while fruit ciders are growing at 12%.

Matthew Langley, Westons category development manager, told Retail Express one of the main lessons from the report for convenience retailers is to focus on their range of traditional, craft and premium ciders.

“Convenience retailers are increasingly realising they can make more money from smaller spaces with premium. It also offers them a point of difference as they will struggle to compete with the supermarket price of mainstream brands,” he added.

The report recommends that retailers should site their cider range between wine and beer as cider is likely to be drank by beer and wine drinkers too.

It also found that fruit cider makes up 30% of the cider category, so it should take up a third of the cider fixture in store.