Beer Marketer's Insights - Near 10% Drop in Grocery Volume Hit Craft Hard in 2022; Juice Force Ends Year as Top-10 Brand

Lots of craft brewers are happy to close the book on 2022, especially when it comes to tough off-premise environment. Craft volume finished the year down 8.6% in IRI multi-outlet + convenience data, with $$ off 4.7%. Biggest hit came in foodstores, where craft volume fell 9.5%. Segment shed 0.9 share of beer category $$ to 20 on 5.7% decline in the channel. C-stores still far less developed and not that much better: craft cases down 8%, volume -3.5%. Craft not quite so soft at all other off-premise outlets tracked in IRI MULC data (drug, mass market/Walmart and more), but still down mid-single-digits by both volume and $$. Kirin-Lion Climbs 15%, Ahead of MC Craft; Sapporo USA Only Other Top Vendor to Grow Volume Among top-25 beer category vendors, 12 primarily operate in craft. Below table also shows craft portfolios of AB (21 brand fams include 2 high-end ciders and Shock Top) and MC (6 brand families including Blue Moon, Leinie). Star of the show remains Kirin-Lion, which grew $$ 15.4% in IRI MULC last yr, driven by explosive growth of Voodoo Ranger brands. Addition of Bell's helped push co past MC craft. (Note that Boston Beer not listed without clear window into Sam Adams and Dogfish Head; total Boston $$ down just 0.1% to $2.4 bil in IRI MULC on 5.1% volume decline.)Few other top craft vendors kept their volume declines to single digits in 2022 off-premise scans. Sierra Nevada cases declined about 5%, while SweetWater slipped 8% and ABV fell 9%. Firestone Walker and New Glarus each off around 12%; Lagunitas, Gambrinus and Deschutes down 13%; Founders volume declined 16% and CANarchy portfolio down big 20%. But with addition of Stone early in yr, Sapporo USA now a top vendor, grew volume 2.3% and kept dollars close to flat (only top supplier to see avg prices dip). Editor's note: many of the Three other craft vendors among the top-25 suppliers in grocery channel. Athletic ranks #23 after 122% volume jump and 131% $$ gain in foodstores. Great Lakes cases dipped 7.4% in grocery, $$ -3.2%. But 2 Towns Ciderhouse went opposite direction, got double-digit $$ gain, +12.4%, sporting high avg price per case at $54.58.Juice Force Joins Top-10 Craft Brands in Year-1, Stands Out in Sea of Red Just 8 of the 30 largest craft brands by $$ posted a positive trend in off-premise scans for full-yr 2022. Four of 'em were Voodoo Rangers and two more were Little Things. In its first yr, Voodoo Ranger Juice Force hazy imperial IPA hit $73.3 mil in tracked sales in IRI MULC, grabbing over 1.5 share of craft $$. Good enough to be #10 craft brand by $$. It ended yr at #4 in c-stores, where it did over 62% of its sales. Original VR Imperial IPA finished year up 17%, still #2 brand in this data behind Blue Moon. Juicy Haze and the Voodoo vty pk also posted gains for NBB. Sierra's Hazy Little Thing was only other top-10 craft brand to grow $$, eking out 3.1% growth for full yr. Big Little Thing up 31% at about 1/4 HLT's size. But their growth entirely offset by Pale's 8% and Torpedo's 21% declines. Those sorts of super-soft trends were closer to the norm in IRI as 10 of top-30 brands declined double-digits. AB had the only 2 other growth brands among the top-30: Kona Big Wave, +4%, and Wicked Weed Pernicious, +24%. But it also had steepest declines as Goose IPA fell 19% and Shock Top dropped 24%.Save the Date: Craft Update Report + Webinar Coming Wednesday, March 15, 1pm Eastern Dive much deeper into top craft brand families and brands, plus a plethora of other data and analysis, during our annual Craft Update data report and webinar, coming up in a couple months. For a detailed look at the total beer industry's performance in 2022, sign up for our Year in Beer webinar, coming 2 wks from today on Feb 1.

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Near 10% Drop in Grocery Volume Hit Craft Hard in 2022; Juice Force Ends Year as Top-10 Brand

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