News Is The Hard Seltzer Boom Over?

Boston Beer announced last week in their quarterly financial statement that sales for Truly hard seltzer were significantly lower than expected and dropped their target sales for the balance of the year. The announcement immediately triggered some in the industry to ponder if the meteoric rise of the hard seltzer category has come to an end. Even the mainstream press jumped in, with CNN posting the headline, “The hard seltzer craze has come to an end.”

Has it?

The most reasonable answer might be; it’s too soon to tell. The results from one company does not necessarily portend how an entire category might perform.

The category certainly did explode seemingly overnight, growing quicker than probably any other single category in the alcohol beverage industry has in the past. It took craft beer about 15 years to hit what hard seltzer did in two years. It is also a category that seems to defy age demographics, showing up a frat parties and also at backyard BBQs with 50-year-olds. And since the preferred package going into the pandemic was in cans and it already had solid distribution in the off-premise, it was a perfect set-up for the nearly one-year on-premise shut down.

With increased competition entering the market from global brewers with well-toned muscle in the distribution and chain store channels, it really is no surprise that Boston Beer may have over-estimated sales of Truly. But the verdict is still out on the category as a whole. It will take until at least late fall for a trend to come into focus.

More here.

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