Source: Beer Business Daily
SEPTEMBER 15, 2017
Nielsen CGA released some on-premise numbers yesterday, covering the latest 52 weeks ending ended July 15.
They mainly focused on spirits and wine trends, but that just underscored the fact that beer is still lagging bev alc growth trends.
“Spirits continue to grow and remain the top-performing mega category, up 3.0% in dollar sales and 1.8% in volume sales,” per Nielsen. That’s been driven by large categories, like vodka (+1.3%) and whiskey (+1.7%), as well as smaller sub-categories: tequila (+6.4%) and Cognac (+13.6%).
“Wine volume sales are up (+1.5%), driven by growth across all wine sub-categories,” with dollar sales up 2.2%. Sparkling wine is doing particularly well, up 12.4%.
And beer?
“Beer remains consistent,” with volume down 2.1% and dollars down 1.5%.
Domest premiums are driving the drag: The last 52 weeks to July 15, domestic premium beer (37 share of volume) is down 6.4%, down almost 2 share. Craft, at almost 30 share of beer volume on premise, is up almost 1%, and 1 share. Imports, at almost 19% share of the on trade, are up almost 3% and 1 sharepoint. And domestic super premiums are up 6%, but they’re barely 4 share of the category in the channel.