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Is "Dry January" Hurting Beverage Sales?  - AdobeStock 136718763

Dry January is a public health campaign to encourage people to avoid drinking alcohol during the month.

Search interest for “dry January” had its peak in 2019 as seen in the chart below from Google Trends.

Interest in January 2021 lasted slightly longer than the year before. The value of 100 is the peak popularity for the term.

Is "Dry January" Hurting Beverage Sales?  - dj1

Whether it is due to dry January or something else alcoholic beverage sales trends fall off in January, after the stocking up period during the year-end holidays.

January 2020 sales were 18.4% lower than the average of the prior 11 months of the year.

January 2021 sales were 17.4% below the average sales of the month as seen in the chart below. According to a consumer survey conducted by Numerator, 19.6% of respondents said they had participated in a dry January in the past.

Fewer shoppers visited beverage alcohol stores in January with household penetration falling 5% in January 2020 and 4.1% in January 2021 compared to the average for the year.

In the U.K. where the challenge began, 15% of adults are planning to participate this year, up 22% from the prior year. Heineken’s 0.0 Zero-Alcohol beer is the best-selling beer in the category.

Sales of no-alcohol beer have been growing at a high rate, over 30% in 2020. However, no-alcohol beer still has less than 0.5% of total beer dollar sales in IRI tracked channels.

Europe has a much higher share of no-alcohol beer consumption with nearly 75% of the global total. In Spain, no-alcohol beers are 13% of all beer sales.

Is "Dry January" Hurting Beverage Sales?  - dj2