The May Beer Purchasers’ Index (BPI) showed “sequential improvement” compared to the previous three months, with the overall index reading 45 and at-risk inventory hitting 47, falling below the 50 benchmark for the first time since January, the National Beer Wholesalers Association (NBWA) shared Friday.
A reminder that a reading of 50 indicates expanding volumes in a segment, while readings below 50 denote contraction.
May’s numbers are a sign of the beer industry moving “from contractionary territory to a more cautionary state,” NBWA chief economist and VP of analytics Lester Jones wrote.
The beer category’s overall 45 reading was still 18 points below May 2024’s reading of 63. Every segment except for cider underperformed compared to last year.
Here’s a look at each segment:
- Imports: 42 index, 30 points below May 2024;
- Craft: 20 index, down 12 points year-over-year (YoY);
- Premium lights: 37 index, down 17 points YoY;
- Premium regular: 42 index, down 11 points YoY;
- Below premium: 47 index, down 3 points YoY;
- Flavored malt beverage (FMB)/hard seltzer: 39 index, down 3 points YoY;
- Cider: 33 index, up 2 points YoY.
Jones noted that the FMB/hard seltzer segment posted “its eighth highest reading of the past three years and a significant increase from its May 2023 reading of 26, reflecting a positive shift in its long-term index trend.”