Circana category analysis: Beer and Cider

The beer and cider market is under-performing the wider food market. Value sales in the latest 12 months (L12M) are down by -1.0% versus (vs) last year (LY) and are not showing any signs of recovery with value sales down by -2.3% in the L3M vs LY. Decline is volume drive, whilst average unit prices have fallen in the L3M, average volume price is slightly up by +0.3% in the L3M vs LY. The symbols and independent channel has a significant over trade in beer and cider with a value share of 25.9 percentage points (PP) making it a key category for symbols and independent retailers.

Whilst the category is under-performing, symbol and independent retailers are out-performing the market albeit sales are still down vs LY by -0.7%, meaning symbols and independents gained 0.1PP of value share on LY. In the latest 4 weeks, (L4W) value fell sharply for Supermarkets by -5.4%, whilst symbols and independent retailers dropped by just -0.2% meaning symbols and independents gained 1.0PP of share over LY. Given symbols and independent retailer reliance on the category, they’ll be hoping that sales pick up in 2025 and that the strong performance in the L4W continues.