Over the past year, off-trade sales of fruit ciders have risen by 80 per cent to create a market worth £113m a year, contributing to a more than doubling in the UK cider market in just four years, to £873m, it said.
Almost unheard of just three years ago, around 27 varieties are now stocked by the country's largest drinks retailer, Tesco. Its cider buyer Kathryn Clarke said: "The re-invention of cider as a fruit-flavoured tipple with increasingly exotic varieties has captured the attention of UK drinkers."
While cider has traditionally appealed "mainly to middle-aged men", she said: "Fruit ciders have what is known in the drinks business as shareability - that is, they are as popular with men as they are with women and that is their great appeal."
