- Three months to end of September flat in sales terms (+0.6%) at US$605.5m
- For first nine months of 2024, top-line at -0.3% ($6.61bn), compared to H1’s -0.8%
The Boston Beer Co has made upbeat noises about its potential “beyond beer” as the group reported a very slight lift in sales from the third quarter.
Three months on from Q2’s -4% sales showing, the Samuel Adams beer and Truly Hard Seltzer brand owner said late last week that the three months to the end of September delivered another flat top-line performance of +0.6%. The healthier rise in the first quarter of 2024 (+3.9%) meant that Boston Beer is at -0.3% for sales, going into the final quarter.
A 3% dip in volumes (“depletions”) not only for the quarter but also for the nine-month period, demonstrated the company’s admission that price rises have played their part this year. At the same time, an unspecified decrease in volumes for Truly in Q3 was offset by increases for the Twisted Tea, Sun Cruiser and Hard Mountain Dew brands. Indeed, the Twisted Tea and Sun Cruiser RTDs both earned namechecks for their rises in volumes throughout the year so far.
“We continue to believe that there is significant growth opportunity in Beyond Beer categories despite some near-term variability in alcoholic beverage demand,” said founder & chair Jim Koch in the results statement late last week. “The Boston Beer Co has a proven track record in creating new categories, producing beyond beer beverages and getting them into the hands of drinkers.”
Boston Beer, which has a current market cap of $3.59bn, is on course to better 2023’s 2.9% sales decrease this year, provided that Q4 tracks the -3.1% performance in the corresponding three months a year ago.
