E-Malt.com News article: Ireland: Irish pubs report another sales plunge in November

Irish pubs report a 20 percent plunge in pub draught sales in November, the Herald published on December, 15.

Industry experts are describing the crisis as "meltdown" for the market, which has seen an even bigger drop in the sale of bottle and canned beer - at 25 percent.

This follows drops of 8 percent for draught beer and 10 percent for canned beer the previous month.

Internal statistics compiled by the country’s biggest brewers shows only cheaper brands are holding steady as consumer spending wanes.

Sources predicted the financial pressure of the sales slump will lead more pubs to close or go into examinership.

The latest figures came from the largest drinks companies and distributors - Diageo, Inbev, Budweiser, Heineken and the Gleeson Group.

For the year so far, beer sales are down 5 percent. However, the rate of the fall accelerated as consumer confidence plummeted in the face of recession.

Pubs and shops are finding it hardest to sell premium brands as drinkers face a leaner Christmas and prepare for the predicted financial woes of the new year.

Cheaper drinks such as Bavaria, Tuborg and Dutch Gold are maintaining their sales figures.

All sectors of the beer market combined in 2007 showed the equivalent of 850 million pints were drunk in the country that year.

Publicans are being hit with the double blow of falling sales combined with pricey lease agreements they entered into at the height of the boom, experts maintain.


16 December, 2008