Spirits sales in the US – April 2024 – data

Sales of spirits in value terms down by 1.5% in April on corresponding month a year earlier
Volumes stabilise, coming in flat (-0.7%)

On the face of it, the figures for April suggest that the pressure on spirits from destocking in the US may be starting to ease. After all, the month’s flat performance for volumes can only be good news for the overall category, given the pummelling meted out to the off-premise from rising interest rates over the last year or so.

There are two – at least – items of evidence for the ‘defence’, however: April 2024 enjoyed six more selling days than the same month last year (three additional days for Pennsylvania and one each for Alabama, Mississippi, Montgomery County, Montana and North Carolina, offset by two fewer in New Hampshire). More pertinently, take a look at Brown-Forman’s results for the 12 months to the end of April, announced last week, in which the group highlighted the continued impact of inventory level reductions on its -5% sales showing.

Breaking out the data by segment highlights the ongoing success stories of RTDs and Tequila, both of which booked double-digit value increases in the Control States. American whiskey brand owners, meanwhile, can thank those extra selling days for keeping their value sales in the black, by just over 1%.

As for the rest of the spirits category – Canadian whisky notwithstanding – the swathe of negatives means the playing field still has some time to wait before it can be deemed to have levelled up. Underlining the need for patience are the year-to-date averages, below. The hope, then, is that brand owners don’t blink when it comes to marketing spend in the US in the meantime.

The data from NABCA measures spirits sales across 17 US states [and Montgomery County in Maryland] where distribution is state-controlled. This represents around 25% of total sales in the country and covers both the on- and off-premise channels.

The Control States are: