Beverage Dynamics is the largest national business magazine devoted exclusively to the needs of off-premise beverage alcohol retailers, from single liquor stores to big box chains, through coverage of the latest trends in wine, beer and spirits.
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/379477
beverage category grew this year by 2.7%. But the stand-out once again was the craft beer segment, which grew by 14% (or by as much as 18% according to the Brewers Association, the trade group for craft beer). MAINSTREAM DOMESTICS STALL The traditional pale lager and light lager styles, in both their domestic and imported versions, make up close to 85% of all beers sold in the United States. The ten top-selling brands, all examples of these two styles, comprise 60% of all beer sold here. And yet the domestic brands in particular, as huge as they are, seem to be powered by inertia, not enthusiasm. With few exceptions, the volume trend is down for most brands. Volume declines in beer overall are due almost entirely to losses to these two dom- inating styles. David Almeida, Vice President, Sales at Anheuser-Busch, observes, "The industry has been hit by a number of factors in recent years, including weather, the economy and unemployment." At MillerCoors, Cat Corrigan, Media Relations Manager, takes a different view, not- ing that "volume declines are a result of increased competition from wine and spirits." Teasing these explanations apart, Dan Wandel, principal in the client insights group with IRI, a Chicago-based market research fi rm, says "I think it's not any one cause here—there are multiple things at play. Number one, since the recession, I don't know that the domestic premium and sub-premium drinkers are buying as much as they used to. There's a lot of economic and unemployment factors at play there." But, he adds, there are "inroads that the spirits category continues to make at the expense of beer, and wine to an extent as well. Those two categories continue to do quite well, and outpace the beer category sales trends." What to make of light beer? Light brands still make up roughly half of the beer purchased in the United States, as they have for several years, dwarfi ng the premium category by three and a half times. Of the six light beers among the top ten sellers, fi ve lost ground, and only Busch Light grew in volume during 2013. Despite slipping numbers year after year, Bud Light still owns the light beer category. Losses of 4.1% in 2013 can't be encouraging, but it will take a long time to erode the brand's lead. Coors Light, which enjoyed growth in 2012, fell by 2%, but still retained its position as the number two seller. And Miller Lite slipped by 7.6%, despite a return to its original can design that underscores its legacy as "as a trailblazer in the Premium Light category—it reminded consumers that Miller Lite is not just any beer, but the Original Lite Beer," according to Corrigan. Not all light beer brands did badly: outside the top 10, Michelob Ultra jumped an enviable 7.1% and Corona Light by 3%. It's tempting to speculate that consumers regard these as a super-premium beer and an import, respectively, rather than strictly as low calorie options. Budweiser and Miller High Life, the only full-calorie premium domestics in the top ten brands, fared worse then their low-cal siblings, dropping by 5.7% and a discouraging 11%. Once ranking alongside, but now far outside the top ten, Coors Banquet received a www.beveragedynamics.com "Craft beer is changing the beer culture in America and exciting and energizing beer drinkers in a way we haven't seen in our lifetimes. " — Jim Koch founder of Boston Beer