Beer sales in the US are expected to plunge to their lowest level since 1999, per NYP.
The preceding year marked the lowest level of beer consumption in the U.S. in a generation, as reported by industry group Beer Marketer's Insights. Consumers shifted away from traditional beer favorites to explore other alcoholic beverages, and in some instances, opted for non-alcoholic options altogether.
David Steinman, BMI's vice president and executive editor, noted that it was a challenging year for beer. For the first time since 1999, beer shipments were expected to drop below 200 million barrels. Anheuser Busch, particularly, led this decline, facing challenges in the long-term descent of domestic-premium brands like Bud Light, Miller Light, and Coors Light. The company also experienced a setback in the hard seltzer category, where it has historically been dominant.
The beer industry is now contending with competition from a wave of new alcohol products introduced by nontraditional producers, including major soft drink and energy companies. Lester Jones, vice president of analytics and chief economist at the National Beer Wholesalers Association, highlighted the proliferation of sugar-forward alcohol beverages competing for consumer attention alongside traditional beer offerings.
Despite the overall decrease in volume consumption, major beer manufacturers remain financially robust, benefiting from price increases that kept pace with or exceeded broader inflation. Consumers also continued to gravitate toward pricier beer brands, particularly imports like Modelo Especial, which claimed the top spot in America's beer market in 2023.
While the craft-beer boom of the 2010s has subsided, and the market is saturated with various alcoholic options, the industry faced a tumultuous 2023. An expanding economy, creating more jobs and income growth, coexisted with an oversupplied alcohol market flooded with a rapid influx of new products, creating a dynamic backdrop for the U.S. beer industry.
