2015 State of the Beverage Industry: Imported, craft brews dominate growth
Craft-styles help grow domestic-beer segment
When it comes to the beer segment, more consumers are spending their dollars on imported and craft beers. The top imported beer, Corona Extra, a brand of Victor, N.Y.-based Constellation Brands, netted sales of $1.3 billion, up 7.4 percent from last year, while Boston Beer Co.’s Samuel Adams reached sales of $377 million, up 6.2 percent from a year ago, in convenience stores and multi-outlets for the 52 weeks ending May 17, according to Information Resources Inc. (IRI), Chicago. In domestics, Leuven, Belgium-based Anheuser-Busch InBev’s (AB InBev) Bud Light brand, the No. 1 domestic beer, recorded sales of $6 million, a 1.1 percent increase over last year, IRI data shows.
Although domestic beer has seen a small increase in sales, Jeff Nowicki chief strategy officer with Bump Williams Consulting (BWC), Stratford, Conn., stated in the March issue of Beverage Industry that he expects the growth trend for domestic beer to continue. “[In] 2015, I expect to see a better performance for the category with the outcome to come in around 1.5 to 2 percent volume growth and dollar growth in the 4 to 4.5 percent range,” he said.