Well it was another up and down year for beer producers in the states with beer consumption down slightly.
The big brands are still losing market share, but the craft beer and import markets showed very slight increases in sales.
How much beer was sold in the US?
According to Beverage Industry (Zegler, 2012), total sales of all beer and cider products was a little over 25 billion dollars (excluding Walmart, club and liquor stores) an increase of 1% from 2010.While total revenue was up, production was down again. Bump Williams, CEO and president of Bump Williams Consulting, Stratford, Conn., points out that 2011 saw a decrease of around 3 million barrels in 2011. That is on top of a decrease in production of around 2.8 million barrels in 2010, and 2 million barrels in 2009.
Prices up
Beverage Industry also notes that the average case price increased by 0.5 percent and that was why why gross sales were up despite a 0.3 percent drop in case sales.
Who sells what?
The two largest segments, domestic premium and domestic sub-premium, lost a total of 1.2% market share. On the other hand, craft beer volume was up by 14.5 percent and cider sales rose a huge 24.3 percent.Other increases included flavored malt beverages, super premium domestic and imported beer. This seems to signal a shift to more premium sales as the economy has made the normal domestic premium and sub-premium brands have increased in price.
According to The Beverage Information Group. (Rogers, 2012), total beer consumption fell 1.5 percent.
References
Rogers. (2012, April 19). Distilled spirits and wine consumption continue to climb; craft and import beer thrive. Retrieved from https://media.prnewswire.com/en/jsp/search.jsp?searchtype=full&option=he…
Zegler, J. (2012, March). No ordinary year for beer. Beverage Industry, 22-31.
Related articles
- England beer consumption on the decline (askthebeerguy.com)
- More Canadians choosing imported wine over beer: Report suggests (vancouversun.com)
