With a +2.1% increase in dollar sales, the beer category outperformed wine (-2.4%) and spirits (+1.2%) in off-premise dollar sales, according to NielsenIQ data analyzed by 3 Tier Beverages for this episode of Brewbound Data Club.
3 Tier consultants Mary Mills and Stephanie Roatis discuss the beer category’s performance – which included dollar sales increases bolstered by price increases, despite persistent volume declines – and look ahead to 2023 trends.
In the final 13 weeks of 2022, three segments gained significant amounts of points of distribution compared to 2021 at off-premise retailers tracked by NielsenIQ, including grocery, convenience and liquor store:
- Spirits-based ready-to-drink canned cocktails (RTDs) – +38.7%;
- Flavored malt beverages (FMBs) – +12.1%;
- Imports – +6.5%.
Although not classified as a beer, spirits-based RTDs have been gaining territory in beer coolers and shelf sets in states where it is legal. Mills urged brewers to follow the segment closely.
“While there’s certainly still some limitations on where these can be distributed, it should still be, as I’m sure it is, on brewers’ radars, as they think about defending their shelf space as we come into spring resets,” she said.
Craft (-2.5%), below premiums (-2.6%), cider (-7.2%) and hard seltzers (-7.9%) all lost points of distribution during the period.
After spending much of 2022 in the red, craft beer dollar sales began to tick up slightly (+0.1%) in the final four weeks of the year; however, the segment’s volume declined -6.1%, according to NielsenIQ data Mills shared.
“We do see craft dollar sales improving in recent weeks, even up slightly in the latest four weeks, but again, those volume trends are important to look at because they really tell a much different story,” Mills said. “While the second half of the year definitely trended better, we’re still looking at 6% volume declines for the segment and I think craft will continue to face headwinds for the foreseeable future…I would expect more shelf space is at risk into next year.”
Watch this episode of Brewbound Data Club above and follow this link for past videos.