US: Spirits set to steal market share from beer

By just-drinks.com editorial team | 5 December 2003

An industry trade group predicts that wine and spirits will eat into beer's market share in 2003.

The Distilled Spirits Council, or Discus, yesterday released forecast figures which show spirit sales increasing for the year, while beer sales drop.

The group estimates that liquor sales for 2003 will rise by 5.9% year-on-year to $13.95 billion. Last year sales of liquor reached $13.17 billion. Volume is also expected to rise by 3% on last year.

Discus has forecast that market share for spirits will climb to 30.4% in 2003 from 29.7% last year. Beer's share is expected to drop to 53.3% from 54.4%. Wine will also see an increase in its share from 15.9% last year to 16.3% this year.

Sectors: Beer & cider, Spirits, Wine