Beer Marketer's Insights - Beer Sales Soft in Jan NielsenIQ; $$ Down 2.5%, Vol -4.4%; AB Down 15% w/ Bud Light Down 29-30%

Beer sales started off the year in a hole, at least in scans. $$ slipped 2.5% with volume down 4.4% YTD thru Jan 27 in NielsenIQ channels. Recall, beer $$ sales faced tuffer comps this Jan; in Jan 2023, beer category was still riding high off of big price increases in spring and fall 2022. In Jan 2024, beer's avg price per case was still up 2% vs year ago, tho more of the increase came from trade-up. Beer now softest among alc bev categories in scans to start the year in scans, as wine $$ grew 2% and spirits up nearly 6% (driven by RTDs). FMBs Grew Fastest; Imports Gained Most Share; Premium Lights Lost Most by Far FMBs grew fastest among segments, maintaining low-double-digit growth pace with $$ up 12%. Imports grew 5% vs tuff comps, but still grabbed more share of beer $$ (+1.6) than FMBs (+1.3). Craft $$ slipped just 0.1% with volume down 1%, starting 2024 gaining 0.3 share of both $$ and volume following 5 consecutive years of share losses in scans. And hard cider eked 0.8% $$ growth thru Jan 27, tho share still flattish at 1.1. Yet premium lights sank 10%, driven by Bud Light down 29-30% vs Coors Light +12% and Miller Lite +7%. So premium lights shed 1.6 share to 19.3 in Jan scans; the steepest share loss by far. Hard seltzer sales dropped 11.5%, losing 0.7 share to 6.5 of beer $$. Domestic superpremium, below premium and premium regular each declined mid singles, dropping 0.4, 0.3 and 0.2 pts, respectively.AB $$ Down 15%, Shed 4.5 Share AB continued to post steep losses in Jan scans with $$ down 14.8% and volume down 15.1% YTD thru Jan 27. That's a whopping 4.5-pt share loss to start the year, slipping to just 31 share of beer $$ (still 37.5 share of volume) in these channels. On top of continued steep Bud Light drops, Budweiser and Bud Ice sales dipped low double-digits, Michelob, Busch and Natty families declined mid-singles, and Bud Light Seltzer still down nearly 50%. Fast-paced growth from smaller megabrands like Kona Big Wave, Cutwater and NUTRL unable to put much of a dent into those losses.

Beer Sales Soft in Jan NielsenIQ; $$ Down 2.5%, Vol -4.4%; AB Down 15% w/ Bud Light Down 29-30%

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