17 Jan Retail Beer Receipts For 2017 Show Sales of More Than $34 Billion
By the Indiana On Tap editorial staff
As reported by Justin Kendall of Brewbound on Jan. 16, 2018, beer sales nationally in 2017 were basically flat across a certain slice of the market. IRi, a national retail data company that tracks sales of various market components in grocery, drug, club, dollar, mass-merchandise and military stores, compiled sales dollars and sales volume changes for mega beer (US domestic), draft beer, and super premium brands of mass produced beer (like Michelob-Ultra and similar).
The data as presented in Brewbound is basically a bunch of numbers, without analysis of any possible trends or reasons for the figures. This is completely justified since the data cannot be applied to the US beer market as a whole. This is true for several reasons, including that the data presented only applies to a slice of the sales (does not include liquor stores, beer stores, or on site sales at breweries, bars, restaurants, etc.), and because there are a many possible explanations for any individual change in sales dollars or volume. The factors involved are multi-factorial and cross many categories, especially since some beer produced by mega-breweries may be considered craft by the retail market, and because retail sales over-represent larger brands.
IRi data includes beer sales numbers from drugstores. I don’t buy a lot of craft at Walgreens, so these numbers might be skewed toward mega-beer. Photo credit: Mlive.com
However, as long as you promise to not read too much into the numbers, here are some of them. There are numbers to make craft beer fans optimistic, but also data that could cause worry – if given too much weight:
- Sales of all US beers in 2017 topped $34 billion for the first time. This represents a 0.4% decrease in volume, but a 1.2% increased in dollar sales. Perhaps this means that people are drinking less but more expensive beer, but then again, it might mean nothing at all.
- There was a decrease in US domestic mega-beer sales (Bud, Bud Light, Miller, Coors, etc), with a 2.9% decrease in sales and 3.8% decrease in volume.
- The slice of the market made up by import, craft and super premium mega-beer (things like Michelob Ultra) increased by 5.6% in dollar sales, with craft beer itself increasing by 5.6% to $4 billion in 2017.
This graphic signifies the sales of Bud and Bud Light. If you want to see the sales of Michelob Ultra, turn your phone upside down. Image credit: Market Index
4. Unfortunately, the IRi definition of “craft” includes Blue Moon, and this is their #1 best selling craft brand, increasing by 5.3% in sales dollars. Also on the down side, large craft brands such as Sierra Nevada Pale Ale (-8.1%), Fat Tire from New Belgium (-12.5%), and Sam Adams Boston Lager (-11.8%) all experienced significant declines in sales as viewed in total dollars. Even worse, Sam Adams and Sierra Nevada seasonals sold at an even slower pace (-20%).
- “Craft” brands that saw an increase in sales dollars included Yuengling (3.1%), and Lagunitas (9.4%). Large increases in sales dollars for Founders (42.6%) were fueled greatly by sales of the All Day IPA, and increases for Bells (18.6%), and Stone (14.5), as well as those from Yuengling might be from increases in distribution.
- Also disappointing to fans of independent craft beer were the large increases in sales for AB-InBev faux craft brands. Both Goose Island IPA (sales increased 29.2%) and Elysian Space Dust IPA (sales increased 222.4%) experienced wild growth. Especially in the case of Elysian, this might be explained by shipping beer to a number of new states as a result of using AB-InBev’s distribution power.
- But take heart, Bud (-5.7%) and Bud Light (-5.3%) both showed significant decrease in sales dollars, with a $187 million net decrease in sales. On the other hand, Michelob Ultra alone had a huge increase in sales (23.6%), so these ill-defined clouds have a myriad of linings that may or may not be silver.
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