Craft beer hikes market share to 12.3 percent in 2016
Looks like the days of heady growth are a thing of the past. According to recently released data by the Brewers Association (BA), craft beer increased its volume share of the US beer market by just 0.1 percent in 2016 to reach 12.3 percent.
The organisation reported that in 2016 craft brewers produced 24.6 million barrels (28.8 million hl) beer, or 1.4 million more than in the previous year. However, the craft beer industry also lost out on 1.2 million barrels that would have been considered “craft beer” had their breweries not been acquired by larger corporations prior to the start of the year.
Because of these sales, craft beer production among the BA’s members only grew by six percent in 2016, which is down from 13 percent in 2015 and 18 percent in 2014.
Still, the BA’s numbers sync with the general market trend for craft beer. Market research firm IRI reported that craft beer sales in US supermarkets and convenience stores grew 6.9 percent in 2016 to more than USD 2.28 billion. End of the year numbers from the Beer Institute also showed that craft beer volumes increased by about seven percent, which the industry trade body called a “significant deceleration”.
The losses came from the top: 2016 was a year in which the category creators Samuel Adams and Sierra Nevada struggled. But several breweries, which are only ten years old, are struggling too. That is because the market has moved toward what’s new, fresh and local.
Today, there are more than 5,000 US breweries fighting for shelf space and tap handles, not only amongst themselves for “share of stomach” but also with wine and spirits.
“You have 10,000 brands competing for the same share of stomach that 800 brands were competing for,” the industry veteran Mike Mazzoni said. “And the styles that they produce are not conducive to big volume gains.”
Probably haunted by their own hopeful forecast, the BA’s chief economist Bart Watson now stated in a media presentation that it’s a “long shot” that craft beer will ever account for 20 percent market share – a target it originally hoped to reach by 2020.
In 2016 the number of operating breweries in the US grew 16.6 percent, totalling 5,301 breweries. There were 3,132 microbreweries, 1,916 brewpubs, 186 regional craft breweries and 67 large or otherwise non-craft brewers. Small and independent breweries accounted for 99 percent of the breweries in operation.
Throughout the year, there were 826 new brewery openings and only 97 closings.
Combined with already established breweries and brewpubs, craft brewers provided nearly 129,000 jobs, an increase of almost 7,000 from the previous year, the BA said.
