Beer Distributors NAICS 424810

Jul 28, 2025 - Breweries and Production Decline

• Fewer craft breweries produced less beer in 2025’s first half, according to a Midyear Report from the Brewers Association. Closings outpaced openings, with the number of craft breweries operating in June 2025 (9,269) down 1% from June 2024 (9,352). By type, smaller distribution-focused microbreweries experienced the largest decline (-3%), followed by taprooms (-1%), and brewpubs and regional breweries with no change year-over-year, according to the BA report. The decline in the number of breweries was met by a larger drop in volume produced, with the BA estimating craft volume down 5% YoY compared to 2024. The BA's data tracks with data from Nielsen IQ, which found BA-defined craft down 4.1% in volume for the first half of 2025. Retailer and wholesaler rationalization, increased competition for shelf space, and cautious consumers are contributing to craft contraction in the off-premise channel where most beer is sold.
• Beer doesn’t enjoy the same price elasticity as other alcoholic beverages like vintage wines or top-shelf whiskies, with beer drinkers balking at rising prices, The Wall Street Journal reports. As such, breweries must keep a lid on costs and prices, and innovate to justify price hikes. “Beer is [still] considered a commodity,” said Justin Catalana, CEO of San Francisco’s Fort Point Beer Co., adding “People talk about a six-pack’s cost the same way they do a carton of eggs.” But that wasn’t always the case. As craft breweries began to transform the industry, consumers happily paid more for hazy IPAs and other novel brews. But as they proliferated the market became crowded and craft beers became grocery store staples, according to WSJ. Now, amid slumping sales, the nation’s 9,861 craft breweries compete for sales with increasingly popular nonalcoholic beverages, cannabis, and canned cocktails. Some breweries are expanding beyond beer to boost revenue.

• New research from Cornell University shows beer drives grocery store sales and supports relaxing laws to allow alcoholic beverages to be sold in grocery stores, Food Manufacturing reports. The Cornell study found that when a grocery store starts selling beer, beer-chasing households visited a grocery store 3.6% more often and increased their grocery store expenditures by 8% per month. Moreover, shoppers increased their spending on related categories (items likely to be purchased with beer) including snacks, cheese, deli items and soda by 17%. The research, which used nationally representative data at the store and household levels, found that the introduction of beer into grocery stores in Colorado – which began allowing grocery stores to sell full-strength beer in 2019 – can change how people shop, where they shop, and what they buy, says Bradley J. Rickard, a professor of food and agricultural economics Cornell University.
• Producer prices for beer, wine, and distilled alcoholic beverage merchant wholesalers stayed flat in June compared to a year ago, after rising 5.3% in the previous June-versus-June annual comparison, according to the latest US Bureau of Labor Statistics data. By comparison, the retail price of beer for home consumption rose 0.3% year over year in June and fell 0.2% month over month, while the price for away-from-home beer consumption rose 3.1% YoY in June and 0.2% MoM, according to the BLS’s June 2025 Consumer Price Index report. Employment by the industry inched up 0.2% YoY in May, while the average wage at beer distributors rose 5.6% over the same period to $27.61 per hour, its highest level since July 2022, BLS data show.