Beer beats wine in recession as consumer behavior shifts

Bloomberg

"While alcohol beverages are sometimes thought to be recession-proof, we’re seeing significant evidence of changes in consumers’ dining and buying habits," said Danny Brager, vice president of Nielsen, which surveyed 5,000 U.S. alcohol consumers. People are buying larger package sizes, more domestic beverages and taking "less of an experimental approach," he said in a press release last week.

"We do see some consumers moving to the beer category, which is good for us, and within the beer category moving from import to crafts into mainstream," said Carlos Brito, chief executive officer of Anheuser-Busch InBev, maker of Budweiser. "We also see some down trades from mainstream brands into more value discount brands."

Margins will "expand" in a "very healthy pricing environment in the U.S," he said, while declining to discuss commodities prices at a teleconference May 7. The Nielsen poll said that "when economic conditions improve," 24 percent of respondents said they would increase spending on wine and 18 percent would boost their beer budgets.

Among American adults who drink alcohol "at least several times a year," 67 percent consumed beer, according to a Harris Interactive poll of 2,401 adults published May 14. That’s up from 62 percent in a survey three years earlier. Forty-nine percent said they drank domestic wine and 29 percent foreign wine, said the research company. The 2006 report didn’t provide wine data. For graphic:Beer and domestic wine prices compared from January 2008 to March 2009. Notice how premium wines and barley plunged after Lehman Brothers Holdings collapsed in September last year.