Monday, July 7, 2014

If Beer Sales Are Flat, Does That Mean Economy Is Stagnant Or Growing?

Beer Makers Hope July 4th Provides Fireworks to Spark Sluggish Sales

Thursday, 03 Jul 2014 07:17 AM
By Dan Weil
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The July 4 holiday is the most important part of the year for beer companies, especially this year because sales are sliding.

Approximately one-third of U.S. beer sales occur between Memorial Day and Labor Day, with the July 4th week generally posting sales 30 percent to 40 percent above normal, according to industry estimates, The Wall Street Journal reports.

So beer makers are going all out on their marketing efforts, including advertising scheduled around the World Cup soccer event.



Domestic beer shipments dipped 0.1 percent in the first five months of the year, although it dropped by more in recent years, according to the Beer Institute, an industry group.

The decline would have been more severe in 2014 if Anheuser-Busch InBev, which sells almost 50 percent of the beer consumed in the United States, didn't speed up shipments to distributors early in the year before reaching a labor agreement with the Teamsters union, The Journal reports.

"We are confident the U.S. economy is improving. As that economy improves, we do believe consumers will come back to beer," Molson Coors Chief Executive Peter Swinburn tells The Journal.

In an effort to draw consumers, brewers are combining beer with juice, lemonade and other non-alcoholic beverages, CBS Moneywatch reports. These concoctions are called shandys or radlers.

Changing consumer tastes have forced beer makers to make adjustments. "As consumer preferences evolve, the beer market landscape is changing," Eric Schmidt, director of research at Technomic, tells USA Today.

Beer drinkers are gravitating to imports and craft beers, flavored malt beverages and cider, he said.


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