Top 10 beer brands lose volume in 2014

At the trade publication Beer Marketers Insights (BMI), they kept themselves busy in January this year, adding up the sales figures for 2014. According to their estimates, it was not a good year in terms of volume sales for the country’s biggest brewers. The top 10 beer brands in the U.S. collectively lost 1.2 percent in sales over 2013, or a total of 1.4 million barrels beer (1.6 million hl).

The number one brand Bud Light is believed to have declined 1.8 percent or 700,000 barrels (820,000 hl). Coors Light, ranked second, was down 3.3 percent, third ranked Bud down 4.4 percent, and fourth ranked Miller Lite down 1.6 percent.

There were some interesting movements in the import category. According to BMI, import shipments were up 7.6 percent, or 1.95 million barrels for the eleven months of 2014, but import sales stumbled in November, dropping 2.6 percent (57,000 barrels), compared with a 20 percent gain a year ago.

Meanwhile, BMI estimates that Corona Extra, which ranked fifth among the top 10 U.S. beer brands, sold 5.4 percent more (an extra 400,000 barrels) in 2014, while ninth-ranked Modelo Especial jumped 20 percent (+755,000 barrels) in 2014.

BMI’s preliminary estimates put U.S. beer shipments (including cider) up 0.5 percent in 2014. Incidentally, on-premise beer volumes were down 3.4 percent in 2014, following a 4 percent decline in 2013, yet craft beers hiked a 3 percent sales increase in the on-premise last year.