Milan/London: Drinks companies are converging on an unusual cocktail recipe: less alcohol.

In bars from London to New York, sales of "aperitifs" such as Aperol, Lillet and Martini Rosso are growing rapidly as younger drinkers in particular opt for lower-alcohol concoctions over stronger traditional cocktail spirits like vodka.

As a result companies such as Italy's Campari, Britain's Diageo and France's Pernod Ricard are snapping up aperitif brands or launching new marketing drives for existing ones.

Global sales volumes of spirit-based aperitifs - which are half the strength of regular spirits - rose 7.4 per cent last year, while vodka fell 6 per cent, brandy declined 1.3 per cent and rum sales lost 0.8 per cent, according to new data published on Thursday by beverage market research firm IWSR.

Campari, Pernod Ricard and Diageo executives all told Reuters they viewed the rise of these lower-strength spirits, which have their roots in Italy and France, as a long-term trend and a potentially important future driver of growth.

The rising popularity is partly fuelled by young people wanting to stay more in control and having a keen awareness of their social-media image, according to market researchers and drinks companies. It comes against the backdrop of stagnating consumption of alcohol in much of the developed world.

However aperitifs still represent a sliver of the overall spirits market, slightly over 2 per cent of sales volumes, and there is also no guarantee that the rise in sales will represent more than a passing fad in big markets like the United States.

Campari, whose drinks cabinet has historically been skewed towards aperitifs, has a head-start and is reaping the benefits with Aperol, the world's best-selling aperitif brand.

Aperol sales - in decline just five years ago - leapt 19.5 per cent last year, even as the firm's top vodka brand SKYY fell 3.5 per cent.

In the United States - the biggest source of drink industry profits - Aperol has had the strongest growth of any spirit over the past year with a 59 per cent leap, according to Nielsen researchers.

Campari CEO Bob Kunze-Concewitz said that per-capita consumption of Aperol in its core markets of Italy and Austria was still 100 times greater than in the US. "This gives us an indication of the room for growth," he said.

After an advertising campaign last summer in the New York area, Campari plans a similar drive in other areas of the US, targeting big cities and high-end bar and restaurants. The group has expanded its US distribution network and sales team over the past two years.

While aperitifs - which typically contain 10-20 per cent of alcohol - are usually cheaper to produce than premium full-strength spirits, they also sell for less.

For this reason the margins on aperitifs are similar to those on full-proof spirits, once differences in marketing and advertising spends are stripped away. Reuters