Big beer not doing too well

Except for Crown Imports, the top U.S. brewers saw beer sales flat or decline in the nine months to end of September 2013, Beerinsights reports. Meanwhile, lots of craft brewers continued to score double-digit growth.

AB-InBev saw beer shipments drop -1.9 percent in the third quarter, similar to a -1.7 percent drop in the second quarter. For the nine months, AB-InBev’s shipments are down 2.15 million barrels (2.4 million hl) or nearly 3 percent. MillerCoors followed its biggest-ever shipments drop in the second quarter with a more modest decline of 230,000 barrels, or -1.5 percent, in the third quarter. Volume sales for the nine months are down 1.45 million barrels (-3.2 percent).

Beerinsights reckons that Crown (the Corona importer now fully owned by the wine company Constellation) had a great third quarter: up 320,000 barrels or 9.4 percent. That pushed Crown’s nine month gain to over half a million barrels or 5 percent. If Crown does well in the fourth quarter too, it could sell 13 million barrels (15.2 million hl) of beer this year.

Heineken USA and Pabst have held even in the third quarter. For the past 12 months (October 2012 to September 2013), Pabst is up slightly to a total of 5.9 million barrels (0.7 percent), while Heineken USA lost -1 percent and sales dropped to 8.3 million barrels (9.7 million hl).

Boston Beer, the maker of Samuel Adams, reported an increase in sales of 223,000 barrels (29 percent) in the third quarter, which includes cider volumes. For the nine months, Boston’s shipments are up about 460,000 barrels (540,000 hl) or 23 percent, again including cider.

The U.S. beer market in 2013 paints a mixed picture. While among the Big Brewers AB-InBev and Miller Coors, together, shed 3.6 million barrels (4.2 million hl) of beer in the January to September period, Crown and Boston collectively gained nearly 1 million barrels (1.17 million hl). Craft brewers, on the other hand, are doing well. Many are growing at mid-teen percentage points.