Summer Craft Beer Sales Boom In The UK!

As our UK correspondent has been telling us, it’s been an unusually hot and sunny summer over in the United Kingdom and when you add the World Cup into the mix…people are drinking a lot of beer, especially craft beer!

Here’s the deal….

Beer and cider sales in the United Kingdom have been through the roof the result England’s extended run in the 2018 World Cup and an almost unheard of bright and warm summer according to the Drinks Business.

But Kantar Worldpanel is reporting that even before England made it into the semi-finals, beer sales and especially craft beer sales, were enjoying an incredibly positive streak.

Beer and cider sales at retail as of February 25^th had already risen 6.3% or £191 million with lager sales are up 5.1%, ale sales up 7.7% and stout up an amazing 11.6%.

Kantar reported that the craft beer segment is leading this summer’s upswing and that consumers spent a record £135m over the last 12 months, a 47% sales increase over 2016 and a 52% increase in volume for that same period….growth that further explains the flurry of Big Beer /craft beer acquisitions that have accelerated in the United Kingdom of late.

Meantime Brewery was first sold to SAB Miller in 2015 and then sold again to Asahi by AB InBev when it acquired SAB.

Camden Town Brewery also went to AB InBev in 2015, London Fields Brewery was sold to Carlsberg in 2017, Beavertown sold a stake to Heineken last month and just last week Fourpure Brewing, which owns an estimated 5% of the volume share of the UK craft beer market was acquired Australia’s Lion, a subsidiary of Kirin Holdings.

So things have heated up considerably in the UK this summer…And the weather, the recent World Cup fervor, and the demand for craft beer have never been hotter.

 

Banner photo credit: Bateaux London