the beverage group

The Swedish Market

                          
The Swedish state was the only player on the domestic wine and spirit market until 1995. 
The government owned state monopoly governed import, export, manufacture, sales to restaurants and the retail sale of entire alcohol beverages in Sweden. 

 

After Sweden joined the EU in 1995, they lost its monopoly on import, export, manufacture and sales to restaurants. The only monopoly that remains is retail sale through Systembolaget. 

 

Retail sale

Systembolaget has a monopoly on retails ales of all alcoholic beverages containing more than 2,25 percent by volume. 
Beer with an alcohol content between 2,8 and 3,5 percent by volume (known as folköl in Swedish or "medium-strength beer" is taxed according to general rules as stronger beer, whereas beer containging less than 2,8 percent alcohol by volume is exempt from alcohol tax. 
 

 

Systembolaget has a nationwide retail network of 430 stores and approximately 500 agents serving smaller communities. The agents do not carry items in stock, but the entire product range can be ordered through them.

 

 

The legal age limit for buying alcohol in Systembolaget stores is 20 years. The age limit for buying medium-strength beer in regular stores is 18 years. The age limit for onpremise purchase of alcohol is 18 years for all alcoholic beverage categories.

 

The longest opening hours Systembolaget has are 10 am-8 pm Monday to Friday, and 10 am-3 pm Saturdays. The most common hours for Systembolaget stores are 10 am-6 pm Monday to Friday, except for Thursdays when the most common hours are 10 am-7 pm, and 10 am-2 pm Saturdays. Systembolaget stores are closed on Sundays.

 

Online wine trade

Distance sales of alcohol over the internet became allowed for private use and today there are approximately 93 companies in the online wine trade in Sweden. 

This online wine trade market is constantly increasing but is still very small, accounting for between 0,3% and 1,7% of the total wine & spirit sales in Sweden. 
The major players on this online wine trade market are:
- Xwine, Winefinder and Vinolentus. 

 

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Further Reading:  Vin & Spirit AB History

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Alcohol Consumption in Sweden

 

Systembolaget is tasked by the Government with conducting annual measurements of the total volume of alcohol consumed in Sweden.
This Monitoring Survey is conducted by the Swedish Council for Information on Alcohol and Other Drugs (CAN) and entails complemented registered sales of alcohol in Sweden with other, unregistered acquisition sources.
The survey is conducted on a rolling basis throughout the year by means of interviews with just over 18,000 people.
 

Alcohol consumption fell in 2015, year on year, by approximately 1 per cent from 9.3 litres to 9.2 litres (calculated as 100 per cent pure alcohol) per head of population aged 15 and above. The difference was primarily due to a small reduction in the amount imported by travellers. Registered consumption also fell slightly,
 

Total alcohol consumption fell by 11 per cent between 2005 and 2015.
78 per cent of the alcohol consumed in 2015 came from registered sales, with Systembolaget accounting for 62 per cent of this total, restaurants for 11 per cent, and medium-strength alcohol beer from stores for 5 per cent of the total.

The remaining 22 per cent of consumption came from unregistered sales, with imports by travellers accounting for 13 per cent of the total, smuggled alcohol for 6 per cent, home-brewed alcohol for 2 per cent, and online purchases for 1 per cent.

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Wine is the type of alcohol most commonly consumed by Swedes nowadays, accounting for 41 per cent of the alcohol consumed in 2015. Strong beer accounted for 30 per cent of the total, spirits for 22 per cent, medium-strength beer for 5 per cent and cider for 2 per cent

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