Breweries
Industry Profile Report
Dive Deep into the industry with a 25+ page industry report (pdf format) including the following chapters
Industry Overview Current Conditions, Industry Structure, How Firms Operate, Industry Trends, Credit Underwriting & Risks, and Industry Forecast.
Call Preparation Call Prep Questions, Industry Terms, and Weblinks.
Financial Insights Working Capital, Capital Financing, Business Valuation, and Financial Benchmarks.
Industry Profile Excerpts
Industry Overview
The 9,700 production breweries in the US include about 155 national or international breweries producing over 6 million barrels per year. Around 260 are regional craft breweries producing between 15,000 and 6 million barrels annually. More than 2,000 microbreweries produce less than 15,000 barrels per year. An additional 3,400 brewpub restaurants and 3,800 taprooms also produce beer on-site.
Competition Among Breweries
The beer industry is highly competitive with an increasing number of new entrants.
Industry Highly Regulated
The beer industry is highly regulated at both the state and federal levels.
Industry size & Structure
Industry Forecast
Breweries Industry Growth
Recent Developments
Apr 13, 2024 - Slowing Sales Growth
- The Producer Price Index for breweries, which measures prices before reaching consumers, rose 1.3% in February compared to a year ago after rising 5.8% in the previous annual comparison amid stubborn food and beverage price inflation, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. While still climbing, producer price hikes slowed in 2023, and consumers continued to spend. Sales for the US breweries industry are forecast to grow at a 1.88% compounded annual rate from 2024 to 2028, slower than the growth of the overall economy, according to the Interindustry Economic Research Fund.
- The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) is considering major revisions to labeling regulations that would affect beer makers, The Brewers Association (BA) reports. Potential changes under consideration by the TTB include mandatory disclosure rules for alcohol content, major allergens, nutritional information, and ingredients. While the BA says it generally supports the disclosures under consideration, which, as in the case of the “big nine” allergens, convey information important to certain consumers, it expressed concern that labeling rules should not unfairly burden small brewers or suppress innovation and creativity and should include reasonable accommodations for small-batch products from producers of all sizes, according to a press release. In comments to the TTB, the BA also recommended that materials consumed or bio-transformed during production or added as processing aids should be excluded from labels if not found in the finished product.
- Anheuser-Busch narrowly avoided a strike by reaching a tentative agreement with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, according to HR Dive. Five thousand union members at the nation’s largest brewery had threatened to walk out if a new contract wasn’t reached by the end of February. The new contract secured greater job security for brewers, packagers, and production employees at A-B plants, according to the Teamsters, the union representing its manufacturing workers. The agreement included wage increases of $8 an hour, a $2,500 ratification bonus, increased pension contributions, restored retirement benefits, and 8 weeks of paid vacation. “After a long day and a longer campaign, we’ve reached an agreement that sets a new high standard for the brewing industry,” Teamsters President Sean O’Brien said. Some 400 workers at Molson Coors’ brewery in Fort Worth, Texas, who walked out in mid-February, remained on strike in late March.
- Last year was a rough year for beer, with US shipments expected to reach their lowest level in 25 years, The Wall Street Journal reports. In the first nine months of 2023 beer shipments fell 5.3% and by year’s end, were expected to hit their lowest level in a quarter-century, according to industry tracker Beer Marketer’s Insights. A cocktail of factors, including changing consumer tastes and the Bud-Light boycott, conspired to depress beer consumption. Younger adults are consuming less alcohol than older consumers, and when they drink prefer spirits to beer. Generation Z (born between 1997 and 2012) had the lowest alcohol consumption of any adult age group in the nation, with 58% of legal drinking-age respondents saying they had drunk alcohol in the past six months, a recent survey by MRI-Simmons found. Among those, 87% had consumed spirits, while 56% had consumed beer.
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