Big brewers remain sanguine about beer pricing. ABI ceo Carlos Brito spoke of "very healthy pricing" in US recently. "Things are pretty sane" going into Memorial Day, MillerCoors prexy east Tom Cardella told INSIGHTS, "except for a couple of hot spots." Those include $11.99 suitcases for "premium" brands in Chi, earlier $8.88 12-pks of Corona in Phoenix, both loss leaders. Then too, avg beer prices up 3.7% for 4 mos, sez govt, 3.4% in scanner data. That's healthy. But consumer price index for all items just flat. Traditionally, beer CPI matched or below inflation. Key question as brewers plan another round of fall hikes and excise tax hikes loom: how healthy can pricing stay?
Pricing "Very Healthy" Overall Despite Some Scary Low Prices; Beer CPI Ahead of Inflation
Publishing Info
- Newsletter: Beer Marketer's INSIGHTS
- Published: 05/25/2009
- Volume: 40
- Issue #: 10