St. Patrick’s Day may have lifted draft sales at bars and restaurants this year, but off-premise beer category dollar sales declined -3.2% compared to 2022 for the week ending March 19, according to market research firm Circana.
Total beverage-alcohol dollar sales also declined (-1.3%) compared to last year, but increased +1.1% week-over-week (WoW). Beer dollar sales increased slightly (+0.9%) WoW.
Spirits dollar sales increased +5.1% year-over-year (YoY) and +3.5% WoW, while wine declined -0.2% YoY and -0.5% WoW.
“As expected, St. Patrick’s Day delivered for spirits, both traditional category and spirits-based seltzers,” Circana EVP BevAl Scott Scanlon wrote. “While wine was basically flat from prior year, the beer category was the greatest pull on the categories as St. Patrick’s celebrations shifted a bit back to the on-premise this year.
“As consumers prepare for the Easter holiday, it will be interesting to see if wine can begin to lift BevAl sales, along with the continuation of category growth leaders,” he continued.
In the beer category, the top five brand families to record growth in both dollar sales and volume included:
- Constellation Brands’ Modelo – +5.3% in dollar sales, +0.2% in volume;
- Boston Beer’s Twisted Tea – +28.5% in dollar sales, +21.2% in volume;
- New Belgium – +15.3% in dollar sales, +8.2% in volume;
- Constellation’s Pacifico – +18.1% in dollar sales, +13% in volume;
- Diageo’s Guinness – +16.4% in dollar sales, +12.7% in volume.
Ready-to-drink (RTD) canned cocktails were roughly flat, with a -0.3% decline in dollar sales YoY, but +1.1% WoW. Cross-category hard seltzers recorded dollar sales declines of -12.4% YoY, but increased sales +1.4% WoW.
Dollar sales of spirits-based hard seltzers increased +90.5% YoY and +3.8% WoW, driven by E. & J. Gallo’s High Noon Sun Sips (+87.5% in dollar sales, +76.9% in volume).
With $61.5 million in dollar sales for the week, malt- or sugar-based hard seltzer still dwarfs the spirits-based segment ($7.8 million). Dollar sales of beer category hard seltzer declined -17.8% YoY, but increased +1.1% WoW.
Segment leader Mark Anthony Brands’ White Claw declined -0.6% in dollar sales and -3.7% in volume. The segment’s next two largest brands both recorded double digit declines. Boston Beer’s Truly declined -30.5% in dollar sales and -34.2% in volume, while Anheuser-Busch InBev’s Bud Light Seltzer declined -50.8% in dollar sales and -50.9% in volume.