Bump Williams Consulting: Flavor and Crossover Products Lead Growth Across Beer, Wine and Spirits in 2024

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Bump Williams Consulting’s (BWC) theme for 2024: “Crossover canned flavor.”

The firm analyzed the top 100 brand families across beer, wine and spirits based on year-to-date (YTD) dollar sales in NIQ off-premise scans (ending December 21), and identified the top performers in three categories: momentum, magnitude and innovation.

“That [crossover canned flavor] summation is somewhat tongue-in-cheek because in reality, the real learning here is that whether it comes to momentum, growth or innovation, 2024 has shown that consumers are looking well beyond the ‘classics’ when it comes to satisfying their beverage-alcohol occasions and those new choices now run the spectrum from flavor-centric to spirits-based to alcohol-free and/or of foreign-origin,” Williams wrote.

“This balance of realities between ‘Old School’ and ‘New Wave’ products has never been more evident based on the flow of consumer spend and this will absolutely be a narrative to watch coming out of the gate in 2025,” he continued.

RTDs Continue to Drive Spirits Momentum

Spirits dominated momentum growth in 2024, thanks to spirits-based ready-to-drink cocktails (RTDs).

BWC ranked momentum leaders by dollar sales percentage change YTD, including brand families that sold at least 100,000 case equivalents in 2023 to “limit any artificial inflation due to [a] short sell-in period/cycle.”

Spirits accounted for 12 of the top 25 brand families by dollar sales percentage change YTD across beer, wine and spirits, including No. 1 Surfside, a vodka-based hard tea, which increased dollar sales +360.7% in NIQ-tracked off-premise channels in 2024.

Other spirits brands to make the top 25 for momentum include:

  • No. 3 Carbliss (+131.7%);
  • No. 4 Sazerac-owned BuzzBallz Biggies (+92%);
  • No. 5 Lunazul Tequila (+81.2%);
  • No. 9 Long Drink (+49.8%);
  • No. 10 Don Julio (+45.3%);
  • No. 11 Anheuser-Busch InBev’s (A-B) Nütrl Hard Seltzer (+42.8%);
  • No. 14 A-B’s Cutwater Spirits (+23.1%);
  • No. 17 Sazerac-owned BuzzBallz Cocktails (+21%);
  • No. 21 Espolòn Tequila (+18%);
  • No. 23 Cazadores Tequila (+17.8%);
  • No. 24 Sazerac-owned Buffalo Trace (+17.3%).

Along with BuzzBallz Biggies – the RTD brand’s read-to-serve 1.75 litre package size – and BuzzBallz Cocktails, BuzzBallz’ Chillers wine-based offerings also made the top 25, ranking No. 16 in momentum, with dollar sales increasing +22.9% YTD.

Nine beer category offerings made the top 25, with AriZona Hard leading the pack at No. 2 (dollar sales +190.8% YTD). While flavored malt beverages (FMB) and non-alcoholic (NA) beer led the category in growth in 2024, the top beer momentum brands represented a variety of segments, with the remaining eight including:

  • No. 7 Novamex and A-B’s Cantaritos Hard Soda (+57.5%);
  • No. 9 Athletic NA (+50.5%);
  • No. 13 Happy Dad Hard Seltzer (+38.2%);
  • No. 14 Constellation Brands’ Mexican import Victoria (+27.3%);
  • No. 16 Constellation Brands’ Pacifico (+22.9%);
  • No. 19 Yuengling Flight super premium beer (+20.2%);
  • No. 21 Rhinegeist craft beer (+18.3%);
  • No. 23 Mark Anthony Brands’ Cayman Jack FMBs (+17.8%).

Other high-momentum beer brands in 2024 included, in order from No. 10 to No. 15:

  • Geloso Beverage’s Clubtails (+14.5%);
  • Boston Beer Company’s Twisted Tea (+10.5%);
  • Sapporo (+9.6%);
  • Schilling Cider (+9%);
  • Molson Coors’ Arnold Palmer Spiked (+9%);
  • And A-B’s Wicked Weed (+8.3%).

Beer Records Largest Growth ‘Magnitude’

To rank brands by magnitude, BWC analyzed absolute dollar sales change among the top 100 brand families for beer, wine and spirits. No additional caveats were added.

“While a lot of the same names from above may also appear on the lists below, there were some new additions that showcased their ability to make a notable impact to growth on an absolute level based on what might only appear to be a ‘minor’ impact on a percentage basis,” Williams wrote.

Core offerings from big beer companies, including Constellation and A-B, recorded the largest benefit from the momentum rankings. Constellation’s Modelo ranked No. 1 across all bev-alc categories, with the brand adding +$434.1 million in sales versus 2023.

“Growth of ‘only’ +7% for Modelo and +3% for Michelob and Busch can certainly go a long way when those gains come on top of the massive scale already established in market,” Williams wrote. “Several BIG brands made BIG gains in 2024, even if the growth rates weren’t always eye popping, and that is why we feel it is important to look at growth from multiple angles.”

Beyond Modelo, 10 other beer brand families made the top 25 across all bev-alc categories:

  • No. 3 Twisted Tea (+$144.5 million);
  • No. 4 A-B’s Michelob (+$121.6 million);
  • No. 6 Pacifico (+$112.4 million);
  • No. 10 AriZona Hard (+$65.6 million);
  • No. 14 A-B’s Busch (+$60.8 million);
  • No. 15 Cayman Jack (+$53.5 million);
  • No. 16 Mark Anthony Brands’ White Claw Hard Seltzer (+$52.4 million);
  • No. 18 Victoria (+$44.8 million);
  • No. 20 Athletic (+$43.7 million);
  • No. 25 Kirin-owned New Belgium (+$35.7% million).

New Belgium’s inclusion on the list is specifically for its FMBs, including Voodoo Ranger HardCharged Tea, launched in late 2023.

Other top momentum brand families in beer included Happy Dad (+$26.1 million), Clubtails (+$24.3 million), New Belgium’s craft offerings (+$22.9 million) and Sierra Nevada (+$18.3 million).

Nine spirits brand ranked among the overall top 25 momentum brand families, six of which were RTDs:

  • No. 8 Gallo’s High Noon Sun Sips (+$102.3 million);
  • No. 9 Surfside (+$84 million);
  • No. 17 Cutwater (+$50.9 million);
  • No. 19 BuzzBallz Biggies (+$44.4 million);
  • No. 23 Nütrl (+$38.4 million);
  • And No. 24 Carbliss (+$37.9 million).

BeatBox Beverages was the No. 1 wine brand family by momentum, and No. 7 overall, increasing dollar sales by +$107.9 million in 2024.

Flavor-Forward Innovations Continue to Top Charts

To rank top innovation brand families, BWC analyzed the top 100 across beer, wine and spirits that sold less than 100 case equivalents in 2023, and ranked by YTD dollar sales.

“What we found is that for beer and spirits there were some very clear themes that jumped off the page whereas for wine, the results were perhaps a bit more traditional relative to its category colleagues,” Williams wrote.

Common themes among top innovations in beer include “flavor-heavy entrants and “cross-over or extensions from existing/known quantities,” including beer category entrants from spirits producers, and vice versa.

Twelve of the top 15 beer innovations would be considered “flavor-heavy,” with the exception of No. 7 Real American Beer, the light lager brand backed by Hulk Hogan and now with investment from WWE, which added +$1.7 million YTD, and No. 8 1300 Mile Brewing.

Other top beer innovation brand families included:

  • No. 1 Diageo’s Captain Morgan FMBs (+$19 million);
  • No. 2 Molson Coors’ Happy Thursday (+$18.4 million);
  • No. 3 Monster Brewing’s Nasty Beast Hard Tea (+$17.4 million);
  • No. 4 Happy Dad Hard Tea ($+8.4 million);
  • No. 5 AriZona Beverage’s Jumex Hard Nectar (+$6.8 million);
  • No. 6 Pink Whitney (+$3.8 million);
  • No. 9 Boulevard Brewing’s Quirktails (+$800,000);
  • No. 10 Lift Bridge cocktail-inspired FMBs (+$700,000);
  • No. 11 Jason Aldean-backed Teabird hard sweet tea (+$400,000);
  • No. 12 Spiked Jones Hard Craft Soda (+$400,000);
  • No. 13 Troëgs Freaky Squeeze FMB (+$300,000);
  • No. 14 Tilray-owned 10 Barrel Pub Ice FMB (+$300,000);
  • No. 15 Nectar Hard Seltzer (+$300,000).

Pink Whitney was launched as a flavored vodka collaboration between New Amsterdam and professional hockey player Ryan Whitney. While the majority of its offerings fall in the spirits category, the brand made the top beer innovations list due to a 15% ABV malt-based version of its 1.5 fl. oz. packages, BWC’s Dave Williams told Brewbound. The move has been made by other spirits brands such as Sazerac’s Fireball to expand the amount of stores the product can be sold in.

A handful of beer category producers launched innovations that ranked among the top 15 in wine or spirits. Schilling Cider’s Schilling Lemonade, made with a fermented fruit base, ranked No. 8 in wine (+$1.4 million). And Boston Beer’s vodka-based hard tea Sun Cruiser was the second-largest spirits innovation (+$27.5 million).