nielsen beverage update

SALES UPDATE FOR WEEK ENDING AUGUST 8TH

MHW and Nielsen continue to provide you with the latest weekly update for beer, wine, and spirits sales in Nielsen measured off-premise channels. Again, please note that this represents retail sales in key off-premise trade channels and not all trade channels.

TOTAL ALCOHOL

Unless otherwise noted, all trends below are for Nielsen off-premise channels for the week ending 8/08/20 compared to the same week in 2019. We continue to remind our readers that we measure sales in specific off-premise channels, and that the impact of the health crisis on sales is uneven across companies in the alcohol industry.

For the latest week ending 8/8/20, total fast-moving consumer good sales growth maintained, up 7.7% compared to the same week last year. Off-premise alcohol growth slowed some, but remains in double digits, up 17.7% compared to last year. Total off-premise alcohol sales are up 23.5% for COVID YTD (first week of March through the week ending 8/8/20). Spirits growth led for the latest week, up 27.9%, followed by wine up 19.1%, and then beer/FMB/cider up 13.8%. Core beer (excluding ‘beyond beer’ segments such as hard seltzers and FMBs) was up 8.0%.