- Heineken saw weak Memorial Day sales amid larger drops in US beer consumption, Goldman Sachs found.
- Goldman said distributors cited inflation, tariffs, and more sobriety as reasons for the dips.
- Millennials and Gen Zers are leading a trend toward less alcohol consumption.
Americans bought less beer for Memorial Day weekend, and one brand fizzled more than the rest.
The Dutch beer company Heineken had the “weakest” sales among peer beer brands during the holiday weekend, a Goldman Sachs report published Tuesday said.
Goldman surveyed about 50 distributors, who represent 230,000 retail outlets, or about 46% of US outlets that sell alcohol. Distributors reported sales trends for Anheuser-Busch, Molson Coors, Heineken, Samuel Adams, and Modelo’s parent company.
Goldman’s report said sales for the overall beer market were “lackluster and largely fell short of expectations” for a variety of reasons, including inflation, tariffs, and immigration.
Goldman said Heineken “underperformed,” with 66% of US beer distributors surveyed saying the beer company’s volumes were down this holiday compared with last year.
Heineken did not respond to a request for comment.
In the survey, top names including Bud Light, Corona Extra, and Miller Lite also saw a decline in Memorial Day sales volume compared with last year. ABI, Pacifico, and Twisted Tea were among those that saw sales volume increase year over year.
About 55% of distributors indicated that beer trends over the holiday were somewhat or much weaker than last year.
They said uncertainty around tariffs and high prices of other household items were hurting consumer spending on beer. Some distributors said young people were choosing to drink liquor or "fancier" drinks instead of beer, citing an overall shift to drinking less alcohol.
Describing challenges facing Corona Extra, the report cited one distributor who said recent "immigration policy challenges for the Hispanic population" were resulting in reduced consumption for the brand.
A cutback on beer drinking during this year's Memorial Day weekend would align with a wider push toward sobriety.
Millennials and Gen Zers have reported drinking less in recent years than prior generations did at their age. Gallup, which tracks self-reported drinking trends in surveys over three-year periods, found that from 2021 to 2023, 62% of 18- to 34-year-olds in the US reported drinking alcohol, down from 72% from 2001 to 2003.
In January, the then surgeon general, Vivek Murthy, issued a warning about the link between alcohol and cancer. Stocks of several alcohol manufacturers dipped as much as 4% following the report.
Companies worldwide are getting creative with low- and no-alcohol offerings. The legacy beer maker Constellation Brands launched nonalcoholic beer in 2022, while Heineken made the move much earlier in 2017. A variety of startups, including Athletic Brewing, Psychedelic Water, and Cann Social Tonic, have also entered the scene for alcohol-free beer and colorful ready-to-drink mocktails.