Mexican Beer the driving force behind Imported Beer growth in the US On Premise
CGA by NIQ’s latest OPM (On Premise Measurement) research explores the driving forces behind Imported Beers’ respectable growth seen across the US On Premise and highlights the opportunities of country of origin and serve style for suppliers.
OPM is the only fully projected, extensively validated, measure of beverage alcohol performance in the American On Premise. Used to track share and trends by all the leading beverage suppliers, OPM is the most robust view of sales performance for bars and restaurants ever produced in the US.
Using insights from the latest 52-week period of CGA’s OPM data (to 02/25/2023), it reveals that imported beer is driving total Beer category volume growth in the US On Premise. This highlights emerging opportunities for suppliers, operators and manufacturers to capture changing consumer preferences for Beer.
Import contribution to Beer growth
At a total US level, over half of total Beer category growth is driven by imported Beer (52%) versus the growth from all other Beer types. The Origin of imported beer is important to consumers. Mexican beer is the leading origin of imported beer, driving 79% of growth, followed by Irish (10%), Italian (2%), Japanese (2%), Holland (1%) and all other countries combined (5%).
The battle of draft and packaged
When exploring Imported beer performance by serve style across the US, the majority split is dominated by packaged serves, (61%) vs draft (39%), however following the total draft trend experienced across the market, imported draft gained share of serve (+0.9pp) in the latest period, at the expense of packaged (-0.9pp).
The growth states of Mexican Beer
Across the US On Premise, Mexican beer experienced the greatest growth in states close to the Canadian border, while its growth lagged in states closer to Mexico. Most notably, volume share and performance peaked in Washington (+22.9%), New York (+22.1%) and Oregon (+20.7%) states, with healthy performance across mid-country. States closest to the Mexican border including Arizona (+5.6%) and Texas (+6.1%), underperformed.
Matthew Crompton
Matthew Crompton, Regional Director – North America, said: “While imported Beer holds the largest contribution to Beer volume growth in the market, there’s still plenty of opportunity and competition to gain preference and drive consumption with consumers. Understanding these essential insights enable suppliers and distributors to build effective strategies that reach target consumers. OPM data tracking over time gives a comprehensive view of how the channel is evolving and helps identify opportunities for growth and success in 2023.”
Following a recent enhancement, CGA’s OPM now includes performance tracking in 15 individual US states, a total of 19 DMAs, measurement across four sub-channels (casual dining, fine dining, bars and nightclubs), and tracking of small, premium brands on an ongoing basis. Alongside these updates, OPM also tracks 9L EQ, total distribution points, and price to ensure brands can understand both brand and category growth drivers, assess market-level execution, and identify opportunities and threats.
