Data

Last week in existential musings on the spirit industry, analysts asked the question: What if growth doesn’t return after destocking is done?

The country’s five largest craft brewers by volume in 2023 remain unchanged from 2022, according to the Brewers Association (BA), which released its annual craft brewery production report today.

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) for beer at home lagged behind overall inflation in March 2024, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported this week.

Constellation Brands is expected to be the biggest winner in shelf resets this spring, according to the most recent Beverage Bytes beer distributor survey by Goldman Sachs.

Craft’s performance in the grocery channel continued to lag behind the overall category, as both dollar sales (-1.9%) and volume (-2.9%) declined in the four-week period ending March 24, according to market research firm Circana’s monthly report.

Fewer displays in beverage-alcohol, notably in premixed cocktails, beer and cider, should be considered a warning sign for suppliers, according to a new report from Circana. The market research firm’s “State of the CPG Beverage Alcohol Industry” report explores factors driving demand and identifies key growth opportunities in the bev-alc market.

Craft beer dollar sales declined -1.2% year-over-year (YoY) in Circana-tracked off-premise channels (total U.S. multi-outlet + convenience) in the four-week period ending March 24, according to the market research firm’s monthly report.

An estimated 11.9 million barrels of beer were shipped in February, a +7.9% increase year-over-year (YoY), marking the “strongest monthly growth in almost three years, since May 2021,” Beer Institute (BI) chief economist Andrew Heritage wrote in the trade group’s latest round of economic reports, citing estimates from the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB).

The beer industry’s 2023 performance was dragged down by two anchors: The continued decline of the once-meteoric hard seltzer segment and Bud Light’s calamitous losses in the face of a conservative-led boycott, Beer Marketer’s Insights senior editor Christopher Shepard said in his keynote address to the California Craft Beer Summit.

Retailers are “paying increasingly more attention” to the sales rates/velocity of beer brands and it has resulted in the contraction of the amount of brands on shelves, as well as the amount of new brands entering the marketplace, according to Bump Williams’ monthly report for Bump Williams Consulting (BWC).

On-premise retailers spent an estimated $400 million more on beer in 2023 than 2022, suggesting a positive turn and future opportunities for the category, according to National Beer Wholesalers Association (NBWA) chief economist Lester Jones.

Wholesaler purchasing expanded for the first time in 2024 , with a March Beer Purchasers’ Index (BPI) reading of 51, the National Beer Wholesalers Association (NBWA) reported.

Beer had an expected St. Patrick’s Day boost, with dollar sales in Circana-tracked off-premise channels increasing +5.3% year-over-year (YoY) in the week ending March 17, according to the market research firm.

Beer sales at bars and restaurants have declined in both dollar sales (-0.7%) and volume (-5.7%) in the 12-month period through the end of January, according to NIQ’s on-premise data firm CGA.