Current survey confirms increasing preference for aluminium screw caps for wine

The Aluminium Closures Group has published the results of a recent survey on consumer preferences for wine and spirits bottle closures. The survey, conducted by market research institute Censuswide, was carried out in six major European markets in 2024 with a total of 6,000 consumers and showed that the popularity of aluminium screw caps is increasing overall. The survey takes place every five years, with the last survey conducted in 2019/2020.

The current survey shows that when wine and price are identical, there is no significant preference for one type of closure. Aluminium screw caps are slightly more popular with 37% of customers and cork has a 35% preference. Over the last three surveys, it has also become apparent that consumers are increasingly indifferent to the question of which closure a bottle should have. Taken together, the type of closure for wine is becoming less and less important to consumers and the proportion of the population explicitly opposed to aluminium closures is decreasing.

Across Europe, it can be seen that the important wine-producing countries of France, Spain and Italy continue to maintain their traditional preference for cork, while in Germany, the United Kingdom and Poland the preference for screwcaps clearly predominates. What they all have in common, however, is that the number of respondents who prefer neither closure when buying wine has increased.

Preferences also vary by age group, with the youngest age group of 18 to 24 years showing the strongest preference for aluminium screw caps. In addition, women in Germany in particular are very open to the use of aluminium screw caps - at 47% of the survey results, the inclination here is significantly high. Consumers in all markets and across all genders rated the ease of use of aluminium screw caps particularly highly at 61%.

One of the biggest challenges remains the way in which the sustainability of aluminium screw caps is viewed. The survey showed that this is still underestimated and that consumers have not yet realised that aluminium screw caps are extremely recyclable. So there is still plenty of scope to educate consumers about the positive aspects of the environmental friendliness of aluminium screw caps.

Another interesting finding from the survey is that Poland, as a newly represented Eastern European country, has a surprisingly high acceptance of aluminium screw caps (39%) and, at 41%, gives them a positive forecast compared to cork and other types of closure. The Aluminium Closures Group sees this as a positive signal, as Poland shows a rather unexpectedly high level of acceptance, which is significant for an important European market.

According to the survey results, the future generally seems to belong to aluminium closures: 42% of respondents in all six countries believe that aluminium closures will dominate in the long term. Cork and abstentions, on the other hand, are tied at 29%.

This positive assessment for the future would continue the market trend of the past: In the last 5 years, according to market data from Euromonitor International, the market share of screwcaps for still wines has increased by 3% to 33% worldwide.

Anja Holthoff-Schlegel, Director Statistics & Market Analysis at the Aluminium Closures Group, is satisfied with the results: "It has been shown that aluminium screw caps and corks are currently on a par in terms of consumer approval. The slight increase in the number of customers for whom the type of closure is not essential when choosing a wine makes it clear that a screw cap is no longer an exclusion criterion for the purchase of a quality wine. Of course, we are also pleased about the high popularity of screw caps among the younger population, which we see as a positive sign for the future of the industry."

* Censuswide
Established in 2012, Censuswide is an international market research consultancy headquartered in
Clerkenwell, London.  Censuswide has access to a global network of panels in over 65 countries,
covering consumer, B2B, Healthcare and Education panels.