Nearly a quarter of consumers (23.3%) have stopped drinking, or are taking a break from bev-alc, according to a recent survey by Bump Williams Consulting (BWC).
BWC surveyed 589 legal-drinking-age (LDA) consumers about their drinking habits, the company shared this week in its monthly newsletter.
About one-in-six consumers (15.6%) said they used to drink bev-alc, but have quit, while 7.6% said they are “taking a break from alcohol” at the moment. An additional 8.7% said they have never tried alcohol.
Still, the majority (68.1%) said they consume alcohol, “either regularly or occasionally.”
“These are the realities that anyone competing in this business is tasked to combat,” BWC founder Bump Williams wrote. “We are losing bev-alc consumers at an accelerated rate; how do we get them back?”
Among the consumers abstaining from alcohol – whether permanently or temporarily – the leading cause was “health reasons.” Consumers listed several health-related factors, including:
- Taking advice from a doctor;
- Needing to lose weight;
- Training to run a race;
- Having “a healthy dry May before the summer;”
- And taking medication.
Other reasons given by survey respondents, beyond direct health factors, included:
- “Alcohol doesn’t appeal to my goals or life;”
- “It’s bad for you and I have seen firsthand what it does to people;”
- “To see if I really need alcohol to have ‘a good time’ or ‘loosen up’ before social events;”
- “I don’t find the fascination or interest as much as I used to enjoy;”
- And “don’t like the feeling of being [too] intoxicated to take care of myself [or] drive myself home.”
“We have all been reading the headlines and have hopefully come to the realization that we are working in different times than we have ever faced in the past – WHO’s [World Health Organization’s] attack on bev-alc, cannabis, economy, failed innovation, loss of shelf/selling space, loss of bev-alc consumers to other categories, tariffs, and a feeling of uneasiness and being targeted amongst the Hispanic consumer,” Williams wrote.
“The reality is that the business environment has changed, and we all must evolve to meet the modern consumer, retail environment and market conditions head on.”
As consumers curb their bev-alc habits, adult non-alc (ANA) beverages continue to record growth. In the last 52 weeks (ending May 17), NA beer, wine and spirits dollar sales increased 28.95% year-over-year (YoY) in NIQ-tracked off-premise channels, according to data shared by 3 Tier Beverages.
In the same period, total beer (-0.8%) and wine (-3.3%) dollar sales were both in decline, while spirits were about flat (+0.4%).
However, ANA growth is slowing. In the last 26 weeks, ANA dollar sales were up 16.3%, decelerating to 12.4% in the last 13 weeks and 10.9% in the last four weeks, according to NIQ data.
Similar dollar sales trends are occurring in spirits (-0.5% L26W, -1% L13W, -1.4% L4W) and wine (-4% L26W, -4.6% L13W, -5.1% L4W), while beer has improved its declines slightly (-1.5% L26W, -2.3% L13W, -2% L4W).