US spirits sales in the country’s control states dropped more than 5% in August, newly released figures show.
Dollar sales fell 5.5% to $1.06bn amid a 3% decline in volume sales to 5.1 million nine-litre cases.
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The National Alcohol Beverage Control Association (NABCA), which compiles the data, said results were “generally weaker” in August.
“Overall performance remained negative,” the association added, even as Michigan benefited from three extra selling days.
Seamus Cassidy, an analyst for US investment bank TD Cowen, agreed “underlying trends remain weak” but said the late Labor Day holiday may have “shifted some pre-holiday ordering into September”. NABCA data, he added, measures supplier depletions.
The NABCA figures captures sales in 18 territories. TD Cowen estimates the data accounts for 20-25% of spirits sales in the US. The bank believes the figures provide a more accurate reflection of the category compared to Nielsen as it measures supplier depletions. The numbers also capture on-premise sales.
By category, cocktails, led by canned RTDs, continued to prosper, with sales up 8.4% to $50.7m on a 12.4% increase in case sales to 669,419. Over the 12 months to the end of August, cocktails sales increased 21.2% to $495.9m. Case sales climbed 21.3% to just over 6m cases.
The only other category to see sales rise in August was the relatively small product area of cachaça. Sales grew 12.6% to $240,436 on the back of a 15.3% increase in case sales to 959 nine-litre cases.
The dollar sales of US whiskey fell 6.8% to $225.8m as volumes slid more than 7%.
Tequila sales dropped 4.2% to $211m amid a 0.3% dip in volumes. During the 12 months to the end of August, Tequila sales were down 2.7% at $2.47bn. Case sales were 1.5% higher, reaching 7.2m nine-litre cases.
Meanwhile, Canadian whisky sales declined almost 15% in dollar terms in August, while Scotch sales decreased 9.7%.
The dollar sales of Irish whiskey dipped 1.7% but distillers managed to eke out a 0.2% rise in case sales to more than 69,000 cases.
According to Cassidy, the data showed Diageo lost 101 basis points of market share in August. Sazerac, meanwhile, eked a 17 basis-point gain in share, he added.
