Although Leading National Cider Brand Sales Decline, Smaller Producers Find Growth By Jessica Infante
National numbers foretell another decline for the cider category. In the past six months, hard cider dollar sales have declined 6.1% in major national off-premise retailers tracked by market research firm Nielsen. Over the past nine months, the segment’s retail sales declined $11 million, to $491 million. Scan data shows that 2019 hasn’t been a good year for the category’s largest players, with off-premise sales declines for Boston Beer Company’s Angry Orchard, Anheuser-Busch InBev’s Stella Artois Cidre and MillerCoors’ Crispin, according to market research firm IRI. Year-to-date volume sales of the top-selling cider brand in the U.S., Angry Orchard Crisp Apple, are down 3%, to more than 3 million cases, a decline of 93,000 cases. After a strong launch in 2018, Angry Orchard’s top innovation brand, Rosé, is down 14.6%, to 810,444 cases. During Boston Beer’s third-quarter 2019 earnings call in October, CEO Dave Burwick said the company is not expecting a return to growth for Angry Orchard in 2020, although the company plans to launch new innovations and marketing campaigns. The orchard might be angry, but it’s quite patient. “We don’t want to put too much pressure on that brand next year,” Burwick said. “To be honest, we have a lot of different pathways to growth next year. Angry Orchard doesn’t have to be one of them.” Meanwhile, volume sales of MillerCoors’ top-selling Crispin cider brands are each down double digits year-to-date. Crispin Rosé Hard Cider and Original Hard Cider declined 26% and 49.3%, respectively. MillerCoors acquired the Crispin brand in 2012 and launched Smith and Forge, another cider brand targeted to male drinkers in 2014. Smith and Forge volumes are down 53.2% year-to-date. As for A-B’s Stella Artois Cidre, volume sales are down nearly 19%. One bright spot in A-B’s cider portfolio is Virtue Cider, a cidery in Fennville, Michigan that the world’s largest beer manufacturer acquired in 2017. Available in just 14 states, many of Virtue’s SKUs posted positive numbers, albeit off small bases.
46 BEVNET MAGAZINE – NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2019