Tag Archives: craft beer sales

More Encouraging Numbers for Craft Beer

Posted on by

The Brewers Association, a trade group representing the nation’s craft brewers, holds bi-monthly Power Hour online teleconferences for its membership. Yesterday Ray Daniels, founder of the Cicerone Certification Program, sent out a series of tweets detailing the news from the latest edition. These new numbers provide another shot in the arm for the American craft beer industry. A couple of things stand out to me here. Firstly, our own Great Lakes region is a leader in the growth of the industry. Let’s keep it up Upper Midwest beer drinkers! Secondly, there are a lot of new Pale Ale and IPA brands coming out. I know they are popular, especially here in Minnesota, but let’s keep expanding our selection. After a while the IPAs all begin to taste the same.

Here are Ray’s tweets.

Listening to BA Powerhour on first hald of 2010 sales data. Craft volume up 11.9%! #powerhour

Sadly, Progressive Adult Beverages seem to be the one other sector of the beer business that is growing (other than craft).

Symphony IRI Group shows craft beer being 8.7% of the total beer market in H1 2010. #powerhour

Sales of craft beer 22 oz bottles up 28% in 2010 vs. 2009 in supermarkets. #powerhour

Bad news: progressive adult bev sales in 24-oz can sales are exploding, esp in convenience stores. #powerhour

Blue Moon $ sales up 27% vs 2009, and is SIG’s #1 “momentum” brand. Amazing. Shocktop up 34%. #powerhour

Newcastle Brown up 10% this year: I’d say that’s good for craft as it helps to create craft drinkers. #Powerhour

3 of top 10 new brands are IPAs … the rest are Progressive Adult Beverages like Smirnoff Blueberry & Limonade. Sad. #powerhour

What recession? First half craft sales showing best growth of any year since 2007. #Powerhour

Stone & Alaskan Brewing are #9 and #10 of the top ten craft brewers in US with folks like Sam Adams, Sierra Nevada, New Belgium at top.

New Belgium is growth leader among top craft brewers, up 28% in dollars year to date. That’s amazing for a brewery that size. #powerhour

SN Torpedo is fastest growing of the top 15 craft brands: up more than 200% versus last year. #powerhour

Top 10 major brewer brands DOWN more than 5 million cases so far this year. #powerhour

Good news is that craft lead brands continue to grow–a good sign of vitality for the sector. Way to go craft brewers! #powerhour

Craft sales growing in all regions of the US, but Southeast is #1 and Great Lakes is #2. Cool! #Powerhour

8 of the top 15 new craft brands this year are IPAs. #powerhour

Craft sales account for more than 20% of all beer sold in supermarkets in Portland, OR and other PNW markets. #powerhour

511 craft beer UPCs (products) being sold in California.

Great Lakes is leading region for case and dollar craft sales growth in the US. Time to hire more people! #powerhour

More households in the US now purchasing craft beer versus a year ago–better than any other segment. #powerhour

Dan Wandel from SIG says craft beer the “shining star” of US beer market, on track for 6th (I think he said) year of >10% growth. #powerhour

New Beer Numbers Look Good for Craft Beer

Posted on by

Some new beer numbers summing up 2009 were released yesterday and things are looking good for the future of the craft beer industry. The Brewers Association, a national craft beer industry advocacy group, released their report of 2009 craft brewers sales. They show that in a year of overall sales decline in the beer industry, craft beer sales increased by 7% in volume and 10.3% in dollars. Craft beer sales represented 4.3% of the total volume and 6.9% of the total dollar amount of beer sold in the US. American craft beer continues to take market share from the big three lager producers. Here’s some stats from the short fact sheet.

  • Growth of the craft brewing industry in 2009 was 7.2% by volume and 10.3% by dollars compared to growth in 2008 of 5.9% by volume and 10.1% by dollars.
  • Craft brewers sold an estimated 9,115,635 barrels* of beer in 2009, up from 8,501,713 in 2008.
  • Overall, US beer sales were down 2.2% in 2009.
  • Imported beer sales were down 9.8% in 2009, equating to a loss of 2.8 million barrels.
  • The craft brewing sales share in 2009 was 4.3% by volume and 6.9% by dollars.
  • Craft brewer retail dollar value in 2009 was an estimated $6.86 billion, up from $6.32 billion in 2008.
  • 1,585 breweries operated for some or all of 2009, the highest total since before Prohibition.

And from another source, a survey of chefs done by the National Restaurant Association puts locally produced wine and beer as the number five top trend for 2010. Locally produced beer and wine are number four in the alcohol and cocktails category with beer and food pairings coming in at number five.

Craft beer continues to rock!