The beer category has recently seen a slight decline in dollar sales, down 0.6% compared to 2023, although it outperformed wine. Factors influencing beer's market performance include competition from ready-to-drink cocktails and the necessity to maintain engagement with younger legal drinking age consumers. Innovations, especially in flavored malt beverages and non-alcoholic options, are crucial for relevance among this demographic. Additionally, challenges such as negative public relations surrounding alcohol and alternatives like cannabis and diet trends pose ongoing pressures. Despite these challenges, certain segments, like Mexican imports, thrive with younger audiences.
"Looking back at 2024, the beer category was down slightly ― -0.6% dollar sales change vs. [year ago] (YA) ― but did not decline as much as total wine, which saw -2.2% dollar sales decline vs. 2023," says Christal Torres, senior manager of client insights at Chicago-based Circana.
"With household penetration dropping over time for beer and TBA it will be important for beer to remain relevant with young consumers as they come of legal drinking age," he says.
"Macro challenges from negative alcohol PR, diet drugs associated with doctor recommendations to stop drinking to extend life, cannabis and RTD spirits are impacting beer," he says.
"Connection with younger consumers is happening with innovation in [flavored malt beverages] (FMB) and [non-alcohol] (NA) beer. The import segment specifically Mexican imports continue to grow and are doing well with younger LDA consumers."
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