Off-trade spirits sales drop 4.7% in US

Spirits sales in the US off-trade fell by 4.7% in the year to November 2023, according to data from the Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America (WSWA).

The WSWA’s SipSource tool revealed that off-trade spirits sales had slowed in November after an uptick in October.

Wine saw a bigger downturn, dropping by 8.7% in the 12 months to November 2023.

Of the 11 main product categories tracked by SipSource, gains were made by two segments in the 12-month period: cocktails (up 4%) and Tequila/agave spirits (up by 1.8%).

Cocktails and Tequila posted positive results in the liquor, convenience and mass merchandise channels.

Looking across different regions in the US, Tequila was boosted by double-digit growth in the East North Central (up 16.7%) and South Atlantic (up 12.2%) divisions.

Meanwhile, cocktails declined in the Northeast (down by 1.9%) and Pacific (down by 3.8%) regions, which slightly offset increases across the rest of the country.

In terms of price, SipSource found that cocktails saw a decline only in the US$7.50-US$$9.99 price tier, while Tequila posted increases in the US$17-US$24.99 and US$25-US$$49.99 brackets, although those two price bands account for just over 65% of category volume in the off-trade.

SipSource also highlighted growth for vodka (up by 3.2%) and cordials/liqueurs (up by 5.5%) in the convenience channel. Vodka also rose by 1.1% in the mass merchandise channel, and the cordials/liqueurs segment was up by 2.2% in the club/wholesale channel.

Data from the WSWA last month showed a gain of 3.6% for spirits in the US on-trade in the 12 months to October 2023.

Spirits sales in the US dropped by 3.5% in the year to September 2023 as inflation continued to hit consumer spending habits.