USA: Off-premise beer category sales up 4.7 percent in January

Dollar sales of beer, cider and flavored malt beverages grew 4.7 percent, to more than $2.5 billion, through the first four weeks of 2019, according to market research firm Nielsen, which tracks category-wide sales at major off-premise retailers, Brewbound reports.

Through January 26, beer dollar sales grew 3.4 percent, to more than $2.3 billion. Segments growing dollar sales included hard seltzer (+246.8 percent), cider (+6.6 percent), domestic super premiums (+20.6 percent), near beer (+4.1 percent), domestics (+3.2 percent), imports (+11 percent) and craft beer (+0.8 percent).

As for craft styles, IPA dollar sales grew 10.6 percent, to more than $119 million, in January, while sour ale dollar sales grew 12.3 percent, to about $1.9 million. Meanwhile, dollar sales of craft 15-packs grew 68.6 percent, to more than $11.5 million, during the first four-weeks of the years.

25 February, 2019