Below is a brief excerpt from a complementary research note written by our Consumer Staples analysts Howard Penney and Daniel BiolsiWe are pleased to announce our new Sector Pro Product Consumables Pro. Click HERE to learn more.

Beer Sales Continue To Remain Steady  - 8 19 2020 10 12 50 AM

For the week ended August 8 off-premise, beer category sales increased 13.8% YOY, even with the prior week, as seen in the following chart.

Spirits sales grew 27.9%, decelerating slightly from 29% in the prior week. Wine sales grew 19.1% in Nielsen tracked channels (Nielsen only tracks ~23% of US industry sales), but growth in the DTC channel has been outpacing the off-premise channel.

Core beer sales grew 8% while hard seltzer grew 115.6%, super-premium grew 19.9%, craft grew 12.5%, imports grew 9.5%, premium lights grew 6.4%, and budget beers decreased 1.2%. During the pandemic, hard seltzer has gained 5.7 share points.

The biggest contributors of market share include premium light beer at 2.1 share points while below premium lost 1.9 points, and Mexican imports lost 0.5 points. The shortness has impacted Mexican imports in supply from a production ban.

Boston Beer's Truly brand has grown 131% over the last four weeks, in line with the hard seltzer category.

Within the FMB category, White Claw has a 40% share while Truly has 20%, Anheuser-Busch InBev has 10%, Molson Coors has 8.7%, and Corona hard seltzer has 3.7% share over the last four weeks.

Beer Sales Continue To Remain Steady  - bg