Halfway through 2025, craft and beyond beer are the biggest share losers in both the on- and off-premise, according to data shared during Fintech and the National Beer Wholesalers Association’s (NBWA) quarterly webinar.
Beyond beer – which includes flavored malt beverages (FMB) and hard seltzer, but excludes cider – led the beer category in share losses, declining 0.8% both on- and off-premise between the first halves of 2024 and 2025. Last year, beyond beer products accounted for 15.7% of dollars in Fintech-tracked invoices to off-premise retailers and 4.8% of on-premise invoices. This year, the segment accounted for 14.8% of off-premise dollars and 3.9% of on-premise dollars.
Editor’s note: Fintech data represents about 41% of all alcohol sales from wholesalers to retailers. It includes more than 1 million weekly invoices from 5,296 distributors and 257,929 retailers nationwide.
Craft beer recorded similar share declines, dropping 0.4% in off-premise invoices, the second largest loss after beyond beer, and 0.7% in the on-premise. In the first half of 2025, craft accounted for 10.3% of off-premise invoice dollars, and over-indexed in the on-premise with an 18% share.
Beyond beer, craft and premium plus regulars had the largest disconnect between their on- and off-premise shares. Premium plus regulars held an 8.1% share off-premise and 32% on-premise. The segment gained 0.4% share in each channel year-over-year (YoY).
Imports were the largest share gainer, increasing 0.5% in both channels, to 24.6% of off-premise invoices and 24% on-premise. Premium plus lights also gained 0.5% share in the on-premise, to 41.6%, a commanding lead over No. 2 imports. With 29.9% share (flat YoY), the segment was also No. 1 in the off-premise.
Non-alcoholic (NA) beer also gained share across channels, increasing 0.4% off-premise, to 1.4%, and 0.3% on-premise, to 1.1%.
Below premium light was flat in the off-premise (6% share) and slightly up in the on-premise (+0.1%, to 5.1% share), while below premium regular was slightly down, declining 1% in both the off-premise (2.7% share) and on-premise (1.4% share).
Ripples from the 2023 Bud Light conservative-led boycotts, which resulted in major volume loss for what had been Anheuser-Busch InBev’s (A-B) largest brand and seismic share shifts across the beer category, are still being felt.
“We had a big brewer hit a big controversy, and it screwed up the market a little bit,” NBWA chief economist and VP of analytics Lester Jones said. “And then, we all tried to find our reset. I think we really are desperately trying to find equilibrium in this market, trying to figure out some consistency and some predictability back in the aggregate industry numbers.
“So pay attention guys, because I think what happens in this next six months is going to be incredibly important in terms of what the overall value of the market is at the end of the year,” he continued.
(A-B) and Constellation Brands were the largest share gainers across both channels at the supplier level. A-B remained the largest supplier in both channels, increasing 0.5%, to 31.1% share in the off-premise, and 1.1% in the on-premise, to 33.5% share.
Constellation Brands gained 0.7% share, to 18.7% share, in the off-premise, nudging Molson Coors (-0.4%, to 18.3% share) out of the No. 2 spot. In the on-premise, Molson Coors (-0.3%, to 25.8% share) still outsells Constellation (+0.6%, to 13.3% share).
The only other major supplier to gain share in the off-premise was New Belgium (including Bell’s Brewery and Kirin Ichiban), which gained 0.1% share, to 1.9%.
Boston Beer (6.4% share), Yuengling (1.6% share) and Pabst (1% share) were all flat YoY.
After Molson Coors, Heineken (4.4% share) posted the steepest share loss off-premise (-0.3%), followed by Mark Anthony Brands (-0.2%, to 3.7% share) and Diageo (-0.1%, 1.6% share).
In the on-premise, the largest share loser was all other suppliers, which declined 0.6%, to 10.2%, indicating contraction in the category’s long tail. All other suppliers declined by half that rate in the off-premise, dropping 0.3%, to 11.3% share.
Mark Anthony Brands (4.9% share), Heineken (2.9% share) and Boston Beer (1.8% share) each declined 0.3% in the on-premise, followed by Yuengling (-0.2%, to 2% share) and Pabst (-0.1%, to 1% share).
Those supplier gains play out at the brand level, as they have the only four brands to increase share in the off-premise:
- Constellation’s Modelo Especial, off-premise +0.2%, to 9.1% share, and on-premise +0.8%, to 7.4% share;
- A-B’s Michelob Ultra, off-premise +0.8%, to 8.8% share, and on-premise +1.3%, to 14.5% share;
- A-B’s Busch Light, off-premise +0.3%, to 3.3% share, and on-premise +0.3%, to 2.3% share;
- And Constellation’s Corona Extra, off-premise +0.1%, to 5.2% share, and on-premise -0.5%, to 3.1%.
A-B-owned Natural Light was the only top 10 brand to hold share flat in the first half of the year in both the off-premise and on-premise, at 1.9% and 0.2% share, respectively.
A-B’s Bud Light lost the most share of any brand in both the off-premise (-0.5%, to 6.7% share) and the on-premise (-0.6%, to 6.9% share). Its first half declines marked a slight deceleration from stepper losses in the first quarter (-0.6% off-premise, -0.7% on-premise).
Molson Coors’ core premium light brands, Coors Light and Miller Lite, each lost -0.2% share off-premise, to 6.1% and 6%, respectively. Miller Lite lost more share on-premise (-0.3%), compared to Coors Light (flat), but remains larger in the channel (9.8% versus 9%, respectively).
A-B’s Budweiser and Heineken both lost -0.1% share in the off-premise, declining to 3.1% and 1.7%, respectively. Budweiser’s on-premise share loss was slightly steeper at -0.2%, to 1.5% share. Heineken’s on-premise share declined 0.1%, to 0.9%.
Combined, the top 10 brands accounted for the majority of invoices in both channels. Share loss was steeper in the on-premise, with all other brands declining 0.7%, to 44.4%. In the off-premise, all other brands lost 0.3% share, to 48.1%.
Draft Gains +4% Share On-Premise
Kegs accounted for 54% of invoice dollars in the on-premise, a 4% share increase taken primarily at the expense of bottles, which declined 2.3%, to 24.8% share. Cans declined 1.7%, to 21.2%.
The top 29 brands on draft accounted for 90.7% of all invoice dollars to retailers. Eight of those 29 brands gained share in the first half of the year:
- No. 1 Michelob Ultra, +1.4% YoY, to 15.6%;
- No. 4 Modelo Especial, +0.8% YoY, to 8.7%;
- No. 8 Yuengling, +0.3% YoY, to 3.9%;
- No. 10 Diageo-owned Guinness, +0.4% YoY, to 2.1%;
- No. 12 (tie) Constellation’s Pacifico, +0.2% YoY, to 1.7%;
- No. 12 (tie) Busch Light, +0.3% YoY, to 1.7%;
- No. 13 A-B’s Kona, +0.2% YoY, to 1.5%;
- And No. 18 A-B’s Golden Road, +0.1% YoY, to 0.8%.
Eight brands’ share was flat:
- No. 15 Sierra Nevada, 1.1% share;
- No. 16 (tie) New Belgium, excluding the Voodoo Ranger family, 1% share;
- No. 20 (tie) Molson Coors’ Leinenkugel’s, 0.6% share;
- No. 20 (tie) A-B’s Elyisan, 0.6% share;
- No. 20 (tie) Duvel’s Firestone Walker, 0.6% share;
- No. 20 (tie) Boston Beer’s Angry Orchard, 0.6% share;
- No. 21 (tie) Pabst, 0.5% share;
- And No. 21 (tie) Coors, 0.5% share.
No. 5 Bud Light recorded the steepest share loss, -0.7%, to 7.6% share, followed by:
- No. 2 Miller Light, -0.5% YoY, to 10.1% share;
- No. 11 Boston Beer’s Samuel Adams, -0.5% YoY, to 1.8% share;
- No. 7 Heineken’s Dos Equis, -0.3% YoY, to 4.4% share;
- No. 6 Molson Coors’ Blue Moon, -0.2% YoY, to 7.5% share;
- No. 14 New Belgium-owned Bell’s, -0.2% YoY, to 1.2% share;
- No. 20 (tie) Heineken, -0.2% YoY, to 0.6% share;
- No. 3 Coors Light, -0.1% YoY, to 9.5% share;
- No. 9 A-B’s Stella Artois, -0.1% YoY, to 3.6% share;
- No. 16 (tie) Gambrinus-owned Shiner, -0.1% YoY, to 1% share;
- No. 17 Budweiser, -0.1% YoY, to 0.9% share;
- No. 19 A-B’s Goose Island, -0.1% YoY, to 0.7% share;
- And No. 22 New Belgium’s Voodoo Ranger, -0.1% YoY, to 0.4% share.
All other brands’ share declined -0.4%, to 9.3%.