Good afternoon,

Linked below is the State Shipments for July 2018.

Here are a few key findings:

• Beer shipment trends improved for the second month in a row in July. Volumes were up 8.2% compared to July 2017 or 3.3% adjusted for one fewer selling day.
• July’s growth trend is the largest of any single month in 16 years.
• All signs suggest the supply chain issues brewers faced during the first half of the year have been largely resolved following June’s inventory correction.
• Some of the shipment growth we are seeing could could be due to shelf-loading, as much of it is concentrated among super premium and FMB products (including hard seltzers), many of which are relatively new to market.
• According to syndicated data from both Nielsen and IRI, wine and liquor category growth trends have slowed recently, especially in off-premise channels. Beer’s recent trend improvements might be related to this decelerating trend in wine and liquor.

If you have any questions, please reach out.

Cheers,

Michael Uhrich
Chief Economist