Beer category (beer, FMBs, sugar-based hard seltzer, and cider) dollar sales increased +2.9% in off-premise retailers during the two-week period covering the July 4 holiday (ending July 9) compared to the same timeframe in 2021, market research firm NielsenIQ reported.
Total alcohol sales for those two weeks reached $3.94 billion in NielsenIQ measured off-premise channels, a +1.8% increase compared to a year ago when sales reached $3.86 billion. However, the July 4, 2022, holiday period still lagged behind 2020, when total alcohol sales topped $4 billion, during the peak of COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns and amid the consumer shift away from on-premise retailers to off-premise stores.
Beer category sales topped $2.3 billion for the 2022 July 4 holiday, back in line with 2020 sales following a slight dip to $2.2 billion for the 2021 holiday period. Stripping FMBs and cider from beer’s numbers, the category still posted a “strong performance,” increasing sales +4.3%, according to NielsenIQ.
Spirits sales over that period increased +3.2%, hovering around $900 million, while wine declined -2.7%, to around $700 million.
Off-premise sales of ready-to-drink offerings (RTDs) increased +3.4%, the firm reported.
Seven of the top 10 alcohol segments by sales were within the beer category. They included imported beer ($508.3 million), premium lights ($451.2 million), craft beer ($261.7 million), hard seltzer ($240.4 million), domestic super premiums ($239.6 million), below premiums ($236.8 million), and FMBs minus seltzers ($211.8 million). Other leading segments outside of the beer category included table wine ($577.6 million), vodka ($194.3 million) and American whiskey ($139.4 million).
NielsenIQ also shared its list of “Category Winners” and “Category Laggers” for the 2022 July 4 holiday period.
The winners, in order, include:
- Non-alcoholic spirits +69.8%
- Spirits-based RTDs +60.9%
- Malt-based alternatives +47.8%
- Wine-based alternatives +47.6%
- Non-alcoholic wine +20.7%
- FMBs +19.7%
- Non-alcoholic beer +17.3%
- Imported beer +10.9%
- Tequila +8.1%
- Malt liquor +7.3%
With a decline of -15.7% for the period, hard seltzers topped the list of “Laggers.” The list of Laggers, in order of steepest decline, included:
- Hard seltzers -15.7%
- Japanese whisky -13.4%
- Cognac -13.1%
- Scotch -10%
- Sangria wine -9.7%
- Grain alcohol -8.4%
- Flavored bev wine -4.8%
- Sparkling wine -4.1%
- Cider -4%
- Ready-to-serve cocktails -3.9%
Meanwhile, zooming out to the latest four-week period through July 9, beer category dollar sales are +2.5%, but still in the red year-to-date at -0.8%.
Volume is -1.7% over the latest four weeks, which is an improvement over year-to-date volume trends of -5.4%.
Year-to-date, RTDs have posted $4.8 billion in sales, a +1.3% increase year-over-year (or an additional $63.6 million). Driving RTD dollar growth year-to-date are hard sodas (+163%), spirits-based seltzers (+73.2%), spirits-based RTD cocktails (+61.4%), hard tea (+23.8%), wine cocktails (+23.3%) and traditional FMBs (+4.2%). On the flip side, wine seltzers (-46.5%) wine spritzers (-34.5%), canned wine (-18.3%), malt-based seltzers (-10.1%) and hard kombucha (-5.8%) are in decline, according to NielsenIQ.
Even as hard seltzer sales decelerate, the segment still holds the highest dollar share of RTD offerings across beer, wine and spirits year-to-date at 43.4%, followed by FMBs (37.2%), spirits-based RTDs (10.5%) and wine RTDs (8.9%).
During the last month, just three beer category segments are in the red in dollar sales compared to the same period in 2021: craft (-4.3%), hard seltzer (-15.9%) and cider (-4.5%).
Craft’s dollar sales performance was an improvement over its year-to-date trends of -7.1%. Over the last month, craft has shed -0.8 of its dollar share of the beer category, to 11.3%. The segment’s year-to-date share is also -0.8, to 11.8% share of the beer category.
Hard seltzers have taken a much bigger hit, losing -2.2, to a 10% share of beer category dollars during the latest four weeks. Year-to-date, seltzer holds a 9.1% share of beer category dollars, a decline of 1 share point.
Meanwhile, imports have gained 1.5 share points, to a 22.2% share of the beer category over the last four weeks. FMBs (+1.2%) were the only other segment to gain more than a point of share.
The average price increase of beer in off-premise retailers is +$1.30 year-to-date, to an average of $27.89, while the four-week trend is +$1.17, to around $28.20.