New Belgium’s Voodoo Ranger brand family continues to light up the top 30 craft brands tracked by market research firm IRI.
Year-to-date though August 7, five Voodoo Ranger SKUs made the list and all but one posted significant growth, including New Belgium Voodoo Ranger Imperial IPA, which increased dollar sales by +20.9%, to $92.7 million; New Belgium Voodoo Ranger Juicy Haze IPA, which increased dollar sales by +15.3%, to $26.2 million; New Belgium Voodoo Ranger Hoppy Variety Pack, which increased dollar sales by +34.1%, to $20.4 million.
Voodoo Ranger Juice Force IPA recorded $32.6 million in sales, rocketing it past all other New Belgium SKUs to become the company’s second biggest brand behind Voodoo Ranger Imperial IPA. Since its debut earlier this year, Juice Force has gobbled up +1.13% dollar share of the craft segment. At 9.5% ABV, it checks boxes in craft’s top two trends – hazy IPAs and double/triple/imperial IPAs – giving the Voodoo Ranger family the last puzzle piece it needed.
Over the latest four-week period, Juice Force ranked fifth overall in multi-outlet and convenience stores tracked by IRI. The brand’s more than $7 million in sales over the period edged Sierra Nevada Pale Ale.
In the convenience channel alone over the last month, Juice Force ranked as the third best-selling craft brand. C-store sales of the brand year-to-date totaled more than $20.4 million, ranking it sixth for the year.
Both Voodoo Ranger IPA (-13.3%, to $21.7 million) and New Belgium Fat Tire (-16.3%, to $29.8 million) have declined year-to-date through August 7 at off-premise retailers tracked by IRI.
Dollar sales of the craft segment declined -6.6% year-to-date through August 7, to $2.886 billion at multioutlet grocery and convenience stores. However, craft’s trends have been improving slightly during the summer selling season. Dollar sales have declined -3.9% during the 4-week period and -5.1% during the 12-week period. Nevertheless, craft has lost share in grocery (-0.89%), convenience stores (-0.38%) and both channels combined (-0.61%).
Only seven brands have recorded positive growth year-to-date. Excluding the aforementioned New Belgium Voodoo Ranger family SKUs, they include:
- Sierra Nevada Hazy Little Thing IPA, +4.5%, to $65.8 million;
- Anheuser-Busch InBev-owned Kona Big Wave, +10%, to $30.6 million;
- Sierra Nevada Big Little Thing IPA, +58.6%, to $16.4 million
- A-B-owned Wicked Weed Pernicious IPA, +27.3%, to $13.8 million.
The segment’s largest share gainers include Juice Force, Voodoo Ranger Imperial IPA (+0.73%), Molson Coors’ Blue Moon Belgian White Ale (+0.37%), Molson Coors’ Leinenkugel’s Summer Shandy (+0.24%) and Voodoo Ranger Hoppy Variety Pack (+0.22%).
Craft breweries that meet the Brewers Association’s (BA) definition of independent craft producers (producing fewer than 6 million barrels annually and not more than 25% owned by a beverage-alcohol company that does not also meet the definition) have mostly struggled in IRI-tracked channels, although the data does not include independent liquor stores, on-premise or at-the-brewery sales, where craft over-indexes.
Only nine BA-defined craft SKUS made IRI’s top 30 and all, excluding Sierra Nevada’s Hazy Little Thing IPA and Big Little Thing IPA, recorded declines in dollar sales:
- Shiner Bock, -9.4%, to $54.3 million;
- Firestone Walker 805 Blonde Ale, -7.9%, to $42.1 million;
- Samuel Adams seasonal, -5.3%, to $41.8 million;
- Samuel Adams Boston Lager, -13.8%, to $30.8 million;
- Cigar City Jai Alai IPA, -3.3%, to $24.5 million;
- Sierra Nevada Torpedo Extra IPA, -23.3%, to $18.7 million;
- Samuel Adams variety pack, -8.4%, to $16.9 million.
Craft brewers didn’t fare much better on IRI’s top 25 beer category vendors list. Only D.G. Yuengling & Son, the country’s largest BA-defined craft brewer by volume, recorded an increase in dollar sales (+12%, to $258.6 million). Boston Beer was only down -0.7%, to $1.5 billion; however, 81.3% of Boston Beer’s off-premise dollar sales in IRI-tracked channels are Truly Hard Seltzer and Twisted Tea.
Strong sales of Sierra Nevada’s Hazy Little Thing and Big Little Thing could not buoy the Chico, California-headquartered craft brewery’s overall sales, which declined -1.3%, to $195 million. Gambrinus (Shiner, Trumer) declined -11%, to $79.9 million.
Dollar sales of the CANarchy Craft Brewers Collective portfolio (Oskar Blues, Cigar City, Deep Ellum, Wasatch, Squatters, Perrin) declined -16.9%, to $61.9 million. Artisanal Brewing Ventures (Southern Tier, Victory, Sixpoint, Bold Rock) recorded an -8% decline, to $61.2 million.
Bend, Oregon-based Deschutes Brewery’s off-premise dollar sales declined -12.6%, to $36.1 million. New Glarus Brewing, which does not sell beer outside the borders of its home state of Wisconsin, saw its off-premise chain dollar sales decline -11.2%, to $23.9 million.