Total bev alc sales were down 1% for the week ended July 3 compared to the same period a year ago, but up 14% vs the prior week. Even though sales were slightly down, it was the 5th highest bev alc week ever, reaching just over $1.624 billion, per IRI multi-outlet and convenience data. And that doesn’t even include the actual July 4th holiday itself, which fell on a Monday this year.
Source: Wine & Spirits Daily.
The week’s sales were driven by beer, which was up 14.3% compared to the week prior to just over $1.1 billion. Spirits sales were up 18.7% for the week vs the week prior to about $253.5 million and wine sales were up 9.6% to just over $266 million.
Clearly, the Fourth of July holiday weekend is still dominated by beer, and was led by Modelo, White Claw and Topo Chico hard seltzer brands.
Turning to wine and spirits, IRI’s Scott Scanlon was pretty much on the money on which brands would most likely do well over the holiday weekend.
Deutsch Family Wine & Spirits’ Josh Cellars brand family did well, as expected, with sales up about 8% and volumes up 4.6% for the week ended July 3 compared to the same period a year ago. Gallo’s Black Box also did well, with sales up 10% and volumes up nearly 14%. La Marca was the only other wine brand in the top 10 to report double digit growth, with sales up 16.2% and volumes up 13.2%.
A few other wine brands that also had a strong week include:
- Oyster Bay, up nearly 33% in sales and up 34% in volumes for the week.
- Decoy, sales and volumes each up 12%
- Chandon, up 11% in sales and 5% in volumes
Bota Box was also projected to do well for the week, but just reported flattish sales and volume growth.
Within spirits, Tito’s continues to plug away, with sales up 4% and volumes up 2.7% for the week compared to the same period a year ago. Gallo’s High Noon and Anheuser-Busch’s Cutwater Spirits were buoyed by a strong holiday performance, with sales up 91% and 26%, respectively.
Several other spirits brands also reported double digit growth for the week including:
- Fireball, sales up 18.8% and volumes up 23.6%
- BuzzBallz, sales up 42% and volumes up 36.2%
- Casamigos, sales up 17.7%, volumes up 12%
- Teremana, sales up 34.5%, volumes up 32.2%
- Monaco, sales and volumes both up around 19%
- Cazadores, sales up 11.7% and volumes up 36.6%
Overall, spirits sales were actually up 2% compared to the same period a year ago, with tequila and whiskey the only core segments showing slight growth.
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