The Top 30 Beer Brands of 2006

CHICAGO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–The IRI Beer, Wine and Spirits Practice today announced its highly-anticipated “Top 30 Beer Brand Performers in 2006,” a revealing industry look at the 30 fastest growing beer brands across the beer market. IRI also unveiled its “Top 15 New Beer Brands in 2006,” a list of emerging new brand entries.

For the Top 30 Beer Brand Performers ranking, IRI analyzed volume growth, share of segment trends, everyday base pricing, and incremental sales growth in 2006 versus 2005 to determine the brands with the strongest performance in the beer industry.

“The outstanding group of beer brands in this year’s top 30 ranking is a great representation of the big trends in 2006,” said Bump Williams, general manager, IRI Beer, Wine and Spirits Practice. “Consumers are definitely willing to pay premium price for their favorite brands, with 21 of the top 30 performers being high-end brands that include 14 imports, 6 craft brands, and one malternative. Manufacturers are also meeting the ever-changing tastes of consumer demands with their new product innovations. The key now is getting the proper amount of shelf space and distribution in the right stores to support these power brands.”

Notables, such as Bud Light, Pabst Blue Ribbon and Coors Light are on the list, but the coveted No. 1 brand goes to import beer, Newcastle Brown Ale, brewed by Scottish and Newcastle Importers. Import beer brands have a very strong showing in the ranking this year with such brands as Modelo Especial, Stella Artois, Corona Light, Guinness Draught and Beck’s. Craft beers also remain popular with Samuel Adams Seasonal, New Belgium Fat Tire Amber Ale, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale and Shiner Bock among the brands making the list. Of course, domestic brands will never go out of style. Busch Light, Natural Light, Yuengling Traditional Lager and Steel Reserve High Gravity Lager remain strong brands.

The Top 30 Beer Brand Performers ranking is designed to highlight the brands that experienced significant year-over-year growth across total U.S. supermarkets in 2006. In addition to looking at volume and dollar sales, IRI also examined pricing, share growth and incremental volume and dollar contribution.

IRI Top 30 Beer Brand Performers in 2006 Total U.S. Supermarkets
Rank		Beer Brand
1		Newcastle Brown Ale
2		Modelo Especial
3		Samuel Adams Seasonal
4		Blue Moon Belgium White Ale
5		Stella Artois
6		Corona Light
7		Smirnoff Twisted V Variety Pack
8		Guinness Draught
9		Corona Extra
10		Pacifico
11		Red Stripe
12		Keystone Light
13		Dos Equis XX Special Lager
14		Negra Modelo
15		Busch Light
16		Yuengling Traditional Lager
17		New Belgium Fat Tire Amber Ale
18		Natural Light
19		Bud Light
20		Samuel Adams Boston Lager
21		Heineken
22		Sierra Nevada Pale Ale
23		Shiner Bock
24		Widmer Hefeweizen
25		Steel Reserve High Gravity Lager
26		Beck’s
27		Saint Pauli Girl
28		Pabst Blue Ribbon
29		Coors Light
30		Guinness Extra Stout

Minimum of 500,000 cases sold in total U.S. supermarkets for 52 weeks ending Dec. 31, 2006

“To have Newcastle Brown Ale be ranked as the top-performing brand in supermarkets by IRI is just an unbelievable achievement,” said Kevin Moodie, president, Scottish & Newcastle Importers, Co. “The off-trade, specifically chain grocery, has exploded for us in the past few years and for the first time is now more than 50 percent of our business. While our company historically has been on-trade led, selling pints in U.K. pubs for the past 250 years, the off-trade now commands so much of our focus and attention. It’s an incredibly competitive environment, and we’re immensely proud that for the past several years we’ve enjoyed the success we have and for 2006 were deemed the No. 1 performer in the sector.”

Providing forward-looking insight about key brands to watch in the year ahead, IRI also announced the following Top 15 New Beer Brands in 2006:

IRI Top 15 New Beer Brands in 2006 Total U.S. Supermarkets
Rank		Beer Brand
1		Captain Morgan Parrot Bay Wave Runner
2		Captain Morgan Parrot Bay Sunset Surf
3		Leinenkugel Sunset Wheat
4		Captain Morgan Parrot Bay Matava Blue
5		Mike’s Hard Crisp Apple
6		Mike Arita
7		Sparks Plus
8		Zima XXX Hard Punch
9		Bacardi Silver Peach
10		Deschutes Inversion IPA
11		Budweiser Happy Holidays
12		Widmer Broken Halo
13		Smirnoff Twisted V Artic Berry
14		Mike’s Frozen Lemonade
15		Jack’s Pumpkin Spice

New brands did not report any IRI sales data prior to Jan. 2, 2006

“We saw a number of exciting new product introductions in 2006,” said Bump Williams, “Malternatives, due almost exclusively by new flavors, are definitely hitting the right note with consumers and captured eight spots in our ranking. A new segment—premium malt cocktails—is also doing well by capturing two spots.”

About IRI

IRI is the world’s leading provider of consumer, shopper, and retail market intelligence and insights supporting 95 percent of the FORTUNE Global 500 consumer packaged goods (CPG), retail and healthcare companies. Only IRI offers the unique combination of integrated market information, automated and predictive analytics, innovative enabling technologies, and domain expertise. With IRI, leading retailers and manufacturers are able to quickly discover breakthrough insights driving smarter decisions and actions across the enterprise for breakthrough results. Companies around the world depend on IRI for improved productivity, stronger brands, and dramatic revenue growth

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