Slight growth
Last year the US beer market enjoyed a bit of a bumpy ride. After a tough start, with a stumbling economy and consumer fears in the aftermath of 9/11, beer consumption bounced back in the fourth quarter. While results were mixed for individual brands in 2002, the overall picture looked bright, given the brewing industry’s performance early in the year. It has been estimated that domestic beer volume grew about 0.7 percent while import volume rose about 6.0 percent which made for a combined industry growth of modest 1.3 percent.
The prevailing trends, which affect the US beer market, are: consolidation in the industry, the changing face of beer consumers, continued growth of premium and super-premium products and the gradual shift to lighter beers..
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