Market
UK champagne market returns to growth in 2025, first rise since 2021
Shipments to the United Kingdom rose 1.9% to 22.7 million bottles in 2025, ending four consecutive years of decline and pushing the UK back to the front rank of champagne's export markets.
What happened
Champagne shipments to the United Kingdom reached 22.7 million bottles in 2025, a rise of 1.9% year-on-year, according to figures drawn from the Comité Champagne’s 2025 review. It is the UK’s first annual increase since 2021, ending a four-year contraction.
Japan and Canada also recorded growth on the year, making them outliers against a global shipment figure that slipped 2% to 266 million bottles.
Why it matters
The UK has long been one of champagne’s bellwether export markets, sensitive to both luxury sentiment and on-trade hospitality volumes. A return to growth there signals that restaurant, hotel and retail rebuilding has outpaced the macro drag of inflation and consumer trading-down that weighed on the category through 2022–2024.
The scale of the rebound — under two percent — is modest. But the directional shift matters to producers deciding 2026 allocations and marketing priorities, particularly those whose UK importer relationships were tested during the downturn.
Context
The UK sits alongside the United States and Japan as one of champagne’s three largest export markets by volume. Its return to growth in 2025 coincides with softening in the US, where tariff uncertainty and exchange-rate pressure are expected to keep shelf prices elevated into 2026.
The Comité Champagne’s wider 2025 review, published in January 2026, framed the year’s performance as “acceptable” against a backdrop of geopolitical pressure, shifting consumer behaviour and stock adjustments across the distribution chain.