Experts: Beer industry regaining ground

NEW YORK (AP) — Go ahead — forgo the mixed drinks and bubbly and ring in the new year with a foamy cold one. After years of losing people to mixed drinks, industry experts say the beer industry regained some of its lost luster in 2007, helped by surging interest in craft beers, a slowing economy and the desire of more drinkers to imbibe at home.

Final year-end data has not yet been released, but Eric Shepard, executive editor of trade magazine Beverage Marketers Insight, said growth in the number of spirits sent to sellers slowed in 2007 while beer shipments remained about the same.

“It looks like the gap between the growth rates has clearly narrowed,” Shepard said.

According to preliminary numbers — which use estimates for December — spirits shipments grew between 2 percent and 2.5 percent during the year. That compares to growth of 4 percent a year ago.

Meanwhile, beer shipments have climbed between 1 percent and 2 percent in 2007, compared with a rise of about 2 percent in 2006.

According to ACNielsen monthly retail sales data, beer also outperformed spirits in September, October and November.

Brown-Forman Corp., maker of Jack Daniels and Southern Comfort, partly blamed the spirits industry slowdown for its lackluster U.S. performance in the fiscal second quarter. Consumers, faced with fewer discretionary dollars to spend are also drinking more at home, said its chief executive Paul Varga.

Heightened interest in craft beers — one of the fastest growing beer categories — may also account for some of the slowdown, Shepard said.