Off-premise dollar sales of beverage-alcohol lingered in the red for another consecutive week, down 2.8% year-over-year (YoY), according to market research firm Circana’s weekly report for the seven-day period ending September 21.
The continued declines were consistent with the prediction Circana EVP of BevAl Scott Scanlon made last week.
At $1.355 billion, bev-alc sales were flat week-over-week (WoW) in absolute dollars, Scanlon wrote in the latest report. Total bev-alc volume declined 4.1% YoY.
Beer category sales were $888 million for the week, a 3.3% YoY decline in dollars; volume declined 4.6%. Spirits was the only mega category to grow in both dollars (+2%) and volume (+9.4%). Wine led declines (-5.2% in dollars, -6.6% in volume).
Ready-to-drink (RTD) canned cocktails, which include products with bases from all three categories, recorded dollar sales growth (+2.4%), but declined in volume (-2.2%). Malt- and sugar-based hard seltzers, which belong in the beer category, dragged the RTD segment down with a 3% decline in dollar sales.
“Upcoming, we remain in the same position as previous week, watching for brand outperformance while waiting for upcoming Halloween data, which tends to bias toward RTD and a slight bump for beer,” Scanlon wrote. “The Sun Cruiser and Surfside battle continues on, reminiscent of BuzzBallz and BeatBox hyper-growth of previous year (both brands remain very strong performers just not in hyper-growth mode).”
Just $114,335 separate those two hard tea brands in the week ending September 21. Stateside-owned Surfside recorded $2.73 million in dollar sales (+264.4% YoY) and Boston Beer-owned Sun Cruiser recorded $2.62 million (+349.8% YoY).
Performance of the largest RTD brands ranged from Gallo-owned High Noon Sun Sips’ decline in dollar sales (-0.5%) and volume (-0.2%), to double-digit gains for most other brands:
- Sazerac’s BuzzBallz (dollars +70.5%, volume +73.6%);
- BeatBox (dollars +10.4%, volume +8.5%);
- Anheuser-Busch (A-B) InBev’s Cutwater Spirits (dollars +84.3%, volume 83.7%);
- A-B’s Nütrl (dollars +8.1%, volume +8.6%);
- Carbliss (dollars +47.3%, volume +49.6%);
- The Finnish Long Drink (dollars +20.6%, volume +19.3%).
Tito’s remained the spirits category’s leader, with High Noon and BuzzBallz in the No. 2 and No. 3 spots, respectively.
Within the beer category, the domestic super premium segment led growth (+2% YoY), led by No. 3 A-B’s Michelob brand family (dollars +2.3%, volume +1.9%).
No. 7 Mark Anthony Brands’ White Claw Hard Seltzer (dollars +1.6%, volume -1.3%) was the only other top 10 beer brand to record dollar sales growth.
Growth remained elusive for most beer category brand families with the following exceptions:
- No. 13 Constellation Brands’ Pacifico (dollars +21.5%, volume +17.5%);
- No. 23 Mark Anthony’s Cayman Jack (dollars +3.8%, volume -1.5%);
- No. 29 Geloso’s Clubtails (dollars +6.8%, volume +4%);
- No. 31 Boston Beer’s Angry Orchard (dollars +12.1%, volume +13.4%);
- No. 32 Constellation’s Victoria (dollars +22.5%, volume +20.5%);
- No. 41 New Belgium’s Bell’s Brewery (dollars +4.9%, volume +5.5%);
- No. 44 Athletic (dollars +20%, volume +21.7%);
- No. 48 A-B’s Goose Island (dollars +8.5%, volume +0.4%);
- No. 50 Heineken’s non-alcoholic (NA) portfolio (dollars +14.1%, volume +5%).
Heineken’s NA brand family popped into weekly scans during the week that ended September 7. Heineken 0.0 remains the NA segment’s top-selling brand, but Athletic’s total multi-brand portfolio outsells it.
“Non-alcohol beer is becoming more competitive as big beer comes gunning for Athletic,” Scanlon wrote.