For the first time since April, off-premise beer category dollar sales dipped below $1 billion, to $987 million, for the one-week ending August 29, according to market research firm Nielsen.
However, this downturn relative to previous weeks is more a function of the calendar than an indicator of flagging consumer interest, as the corresponding week in 2019 included the stock-up period for Labor Day weekend and much tougher comps.
“The timing of Labor Day is most likely the primary factor contributing to declines or deceleration of growth for the latest week,” Nielsen VP of beverage alcohol practice Danelle Kosmal wrote.
Craft beer dollar sales were up 3.8% for the week, but have declined 2.8% from the week ending August 22.
Several segments in the beer category posted single-digit declines compared to the same week last year:
- Below premium beers -4.8%
- FMBs excluding hard seltzers -5%
- Premium light beers -0.5%.
“This is the first week since the beginning of March that we’ve seen several segments across the category down,” Kosmal wrote.
For the week ending August 29, sales of beer, FMB and cider increased 7.1% compared to the same period last year. Adjusted to remove sales of hard seltzers and FMBs, core beer sales were up just 2.4%.
Even skyrocketing hard seltzers slowed a bit compared to the triple-digit increases that they have posted all summer, increasing dollar sales 87% above the same week last year, which included Labor Day weekend. For the first week since mid-May, the segment did not surpass the $100 million mark, with $97 million in sales.
For the first time since March, when stay-home orders to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus sent consumers into stores to stock up before quarantining, 30-packs lost share, declining 0.2 share points compared to the same week last year.
The growth of total alcohol sales (+22.6%) is still outpacing the growth of total fast-moving consumer goods (+14.8%) in the COVID-19 to date period, which Nielsen defines as early March 7 until the present.
Within alcohol, sales of spirits have increased 32.6% in the COVID-19 to date period, while wine is up 24.7% and beer/FMB/cider is up 18.2%. Growth in all three categories has slowed over the last two weeks. Total alcohol dollar sales growth has been cut nearly in half, with an increase of 18% for the week ending August 22 decelerating to 9.4% for the week ending August 29. The beer category had a similar deceleration, up 15.4% over 2019 for the week ending August 22 and up just 7.1% for the week ending August 29.
The spirits category had the largest week-over-week drop in growth, decelerating from being up 26.2% for the week ending August 22 to a 12.4% increase for the week ending August 29.
The end of the beer category’s 16-week run of $1 billion sales weeks coincided with the first week that the wine category beat the spirits category in growth over last year. Off-premise wine sales were up 13% over the same week last year, edging out the spirits category’s 12.4% growth. Spirits had posted the beverage alcohol industry’s largest increase in sales over last year every week since March.
Similar to beer and spirits, wine’s growth has also slowed over the last two weeks; wine dollar sales were up 17.4% over 2019 for the week ending August 22. However, wine sales ticked up 0.9% week-over-week, unlike beer and spirits, which were both down in the week ending August 29 compared to the week before.
Within wine, sparkling wine led in growth, up 27.3% over the same week in 2019. Wine-based cocktails were up 103%.
Consumers revealed to Nielsen in an 18,000-person survey that health is top of mind right now. Sales of non-alcoholic beer (+37.7%) and wine (+23.9%) continued to grow in the COVID-19 time period. Both non-alc beer (+26.8%) and non-alc wine (+5.4%) saw their sales increase in the 52-week period ending February 29.
Drizly: Hard Seltzers Account for 20% of Beer Category During Labor Day Weekend
Drizly, the digital marketplace for on-demand alcohol home delivery, shared that Labor Day weekend sales of hard seltzer increased 395% over the holiday weekend in 2019.
Hard seltzer’s share on the platform remained constant at 20% of total beer category sales. Within the segment, Mark Anthony Brands’ White Claw was still the segment leader, but lost share from 2019 (13.9%) to 2020 (10.7%). Boston Beer’s Truly Hard Seltzer’s share grew from 3.6% share over Labor Day weekend in 2019 to 5.3% this year.
Drizly users ordered more Corona than any other core beer brand over the holiday weekend, booting Bud Light from the No. 1 spot it held over the Independence Day weekend. IPAs’ share grew 23% over the holiday weekend, suggesting that the massively popular craft style’s “position is strong in the overall category despite growth in alternative categories like hard seltzer,” Drizly wrote.
In the spirits category, ready-to-drink cocktails grew 108% in share, to 5% of spirits purchases, up from 2.4% during Labor Day weekend of last year.