The beer category “surprised” Circana EVP BevAl Scott Scanlon last week and not in a good way.
Both dollar sales (-6.1%) and volume (-7.3%) dropped mid-single digits in the week ending June 15 at off-premise retailers tracked by the market research firm.
The situation “will require a bit further evaluation to determine if this is a temporary event bouncing off levels,” Scanlon wrote.
“At this time, believe it is a temporary issue impacting this week and expect stronger comps next week. Again, we are sitting within two major holidays and this period is historically consistent to the upside, but also not surprising to see a week or two softer prior to the July 4 holiday.”
Total bev-alc declined in both dollars (-4.6%) and volume (-6.6%), with sales landing at $1.449 billion.
With dollar sales of $947.2 million, beer outsold its bev-alc siblings, but still recorded the steepest declines:
- Spirits, $250.8 million, -0.1% in dollars, +2.9% in volume;
- Wine, $251.1 million, -3.7% in dollars, -4.6% in volume;
- Ready-to-drink (RTD) offerings, $235.5 million, -2.1% in dollars, -7.1% in volume.
Within beer, No. 8 Anheuser-Busch InBev’s (A-B) Busch brand family was the only member of the top 10 to record growth; its dollar sales increased 2.1%, outpacing volume gains at 0.7%.
The only beer brand families to record double-digit growth were Constellation Brand’s Pacifico (+14.7% in dollars, +11.2% in volume) and Victoria (+25% in dollars, +29% in volume) and non-alcoholic craft brewer Athletic (+15.4% in dollars, +16.2% in volume).
The horserace going on between Constellation’s Modelo and A-B’s Bud brand families for the category’s top seller seems to have dissipated, as Modelo has outsold Bud by an average of $16.8 million each week during the four-week period ending June 15. However, Modelo (-7% in dollars) and Bud (-10.3%) have declined in each of the last four weeks.
Meanwhile, some of A-B’s craft brands have sustained growth:
- Goose Island, +8.6% in dollars, +11.7% in volume;
- Elysian, +4.6% in dollars, +1.2% in volume.
Elsewhere in the beer category, Boston Beer’s Angry Orchard (+3.6% in dollars, +2.1% in volume) boosted the cider segment (+1% in dollars).
In the RTD segment, which includes products from all three mega categories, the only segment to record growth was pre-mixed cocktails (+30% year-over-year). Flavored malt beverages (FMB) “trailed closest behind” at -8%, Scanlon wrote.