Alcoholic drinks in Israel witnessed a slowdown in 2024, largely due to the impact of the Israel-Hamas War. There were fewer reasons to celebrate in 2024, and locals largely preferred to drink less while their family and loved ones were fighting or impacted by the war. At the same time, alcohol was often perceived as a helpful tool for escapism during the war. Due to these opposing trends, off-trade volume sales of alcoholic drinks proved resilient despite the ongoing war. However, on-trade sales experienced sharp volume declines as there were fewer locals going out and tourism was significantly down on previous years. The strong decrease in on-trade sales had a big impact on the overall alcohol drinks market, although total volume sales still continued to rise.
While premiumisation is still a strong trend in alcoholic drinks, economic uncertainty has impacted some sectors, including wines. Locals have become increasingly interested in seeking out the best deals and are not necessarily purchasing premium products. Other categories, such as whiskies, have not been as heavily impacted by the rising cost of living and lower disposable incomes. Beer remained the largest category in volume terms over 2024. Locals typically drink beer when out with friends or have a beer after a long day at home. Beer was impacted by the war, and its growth slowed due to less time spent going out and socialising.
Tempo Beer Industries Ltd continues to lead alcoholics drinks in 2024, as the company owns leading brands in nearly all categories of the market. Tempo Beer Industries Ltd boasts a very strong portfolio, making it the leading player throughout the review period. Global Wine & Spirit Ltd was the most dynamic company in 2024, as the company purchased the rights to many popular brands in the spirits market, gaining strong positioning which has dented strong players in the market. The owners of Global Wine & Spirit Ltd, the Falic family, have had a strong impact on the local alcohol market since opening up their e-commerce business, Paneco in 2015. In 2023, the family decided to start its own alcohol import business, which has taken popular brands away from their long-time local importers. Akkerman held the rights to distribute Finlandia vodka for 30 years, working hard to make it the most popular vodka locally. When Finlandia switched global owners to Coca-Cola Helnik, they also switched importing rights to Global Wine & Spirit Ltd. This took place right after Global Wine & Spirit acquired the rights to a number of Brown-Forman Corp products from Akkerman, including Jack Daniel’s, Wedford Reserve and other products. Global Wine & Spirit acquired the rights for William Grant & Sons products including Glenfiddich, Belvenie and more.
Discounters continues to lead the distribution of alcoholic drinks in 2024. Discounters offer a wide selection of alcoholic drinks, and have improved their selections in recent years, offering more premium and craft products. At the same time, discounters offer products at cheaper prices than most other retailers, and locals are increasingly shopping at discounters due to high costs of living.
On-trade sales were strongly impacted by the Israel-Hamas War in 2024, with on-trade accounting for only one-fifth of volume sales. The off-trade has benefited from the increase in drinking at home since the COVID-19 pandemic, with further momentum gained during the war as locals chose to go out less. Many on-trade establishments were closed for different parts of 2024 due to the war, with restaurants facing staff shortages as workers were in reserve duty. Crucially, people celebrated less in 2024, thus damaging the on-trade which is typically a more celebratory alcohol venue. Additionally, the significant decrease in tourism, both inbound and domestic, had a negative impact on the on-trade market.
While 2025 is still expected to witness slower volume growth due to the ongoing impact of the war, in 2026 sales are expected to pick up as it is hoped that the war will come to an end by then. Locals enjoy their alcohol and are still learning to appreciate new flavours. Being open to new products is expected to help push growth throughout the forecast period, with many launches expected. In addition, many new flavour launches are expected to emerge, which will be appreciated by consumers.
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Alcoholic Drinks
Alcoholic drinks is the aggregation of beer, wine, spirits, cider/perry and RTDs.
See all of our definitionsThis report originates from Passport, our Alcoholic Drinks research and analysis database.
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