Beer Marketer's Insights - Craft Beer the #1 Share Gainer of On-Prem STRs, Per Fintech

While craft beer continues to struggle in off-prem scan data, on-premise appears to be a very different story, according to Fintech sales-to-retailers data presented by NBWA veep of analytics Lester Jones and Fintech veep of distrib strategy Eric Kiser. In fact, craft beer is the #1 share gainer in beer STRs on premise, up 0.9 share to 17.8% of beer STR $$ YTD thru Jul 10. That was top share gain among beer segments by more than 2X in Fintech data. Next biggest were below premium lights, up 0.4 pts to 2.6 share, and Beyond Beer (FMB/seltzer) and NA beer each up 0.3 share to 5.2 and 0.9 respectively. One big aspect of craft's growth seems to be keg recovery, at least by $$ sales to retailers. Kegs jumped up 5.5 pts to 50.5% share of beer's package sales mix on premise YTD. While Modelo Especial and Mich Ultra drove the biggest gains, several craft brands were among top keg gainers too. Most of the share gains are comin' outta premium plus lights and premium regular's hide, as those segments dropped 0.9 pts and 0.7 pts of total on-prem STRs. Premium plus lights (including #1 on-prem brand Mich Ultra with other megabrand light lagers) still hold a whopping 42.2 share of on-prem STRs while premium plus regular down to just 4.2. Imports shed 0.3 share of on-prem STRs to 23.6 in this data. And below premium regular slipped 0.1 share to 1.8. Editor's note: most other on-prem data tracking sales to consumers shows craft beer's share of on-prem sales much higher.Blue Moon Shed 6 Share of Craft On-Prem; Bell's and Kona Led Growth; Big Collective Gain from Smaller Brands MC's Blue Moon is the #1 craft brand by far in on-premise Fintech data, but its losing heaps of share this year. Blue Moon shed 6 share of craft $$, but still held 20.1 YTD. That's still 3X bigger than the #2 craft brand on-prem, Sam Adams, which gained 0.3 pts to 6.7 share. Yet the #3 and #4 craft brands, Bell's and Kona, were the clearcut top gainers in craft on-prem, according to Fintech. Both snagged an additional 1.4 share as Bell's reached 6 share and Kona at 5.1. Notably, Bell's is the #11 keg brand among all of beer and Kona's #14. Kona's now AB's #5 largest keg brand, larger than Budweiser and rivaling Busch Light for the #4 spot.Several other top craft brands gained share too, including Sierra Nevada and NBB Voodoo Ranger family each +0.4 pts, Shiner and Elysian each +0.3, SweetWater +0.2, and Leinenkugel's +0.1. Firestone Walker and Founders share of craft on-prem was flattish, suggesting both brands grew sales on premise in line with craft segment growth. Only Goose Island (-0.1) and Lagunitas (-0.4) lost share among top-15 craft brands. And all other craft brands outside the top-15 collectively picked up a whopping 1.8 share to 37 of craft $$ on prem.Athletic is the 2d-Largest "Craft" Can Brand On-Prem; Still Catching Up to Heineken 0.0 On Prem Astonishingly, Athletic cans now outsell all other craft beer brand cans on-premise except Blue Moon, according to Fintech data. Athletic rose 0.7 share pts to 0.8 share of total beer can STRs while Blue Moon shed 0.4 pts to 0.9 share this year. That makes Athletic #21 beer brand overall in a can on-premise. Then too, while Athletic became #1 NA beer off-premise this year, it's still got a ways to go to catch Heineken 0.0 on premise. Even as Heineken shed 10 pts of NA beer share on premise, it still holds a sizable lead at 38.3. Athletic snagged 5.6 pts to 21 share of NA beer on premise.Bell's #4 Beer in MI; Georgetown #5 Beer Brand in WA Among 24 states shown, there were two states with craft brands in the top-5 beer brands overall in Fintech data. Bell's family is the #4 beer brand in its home state MI, only behind Miller Lite, Bud Light and Coors Light. And Georgetown family ranks 5th-largest in its home state WA, with only Coors Light, White Claw, Modelo and Corona ahead. Recall, Bell's sells over 200K bbls in MI and Georgetown sells over 100K bbls in WA.

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Craft Beer the #1 Share Gainer of On-Prem STRs, Per Fintech

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