Weather, weak traffic and promotions in other channels hurt beverage sales at c-stores in Q4.
Wells Fargo recently conducted a “Beverage Buzz” survey of beverage retailers representing over 15,000 convenience store locations across the U.S. to learn what retailers are seeing at the store level across the beverage category.
Wells Fargo outlined the following key takeaways:
(1) Non-alcoholic beverage and alcoholic beverage sales were both up about 4%, as relative softness in Q4 continued based on weather, weak traffic and increased promotions in other channels;
(2) Bottled waters and import beers were the top growing categories;
(3) Monster sales were up only approximately 2% in the c-store channel. “Retailers broadly remain frustrated given production issues (Java), product delays (Hydro), and the poor launch of Mutant,” said Senior Analyst Bonnie Herzog.
(4) STZ continues to outperform and take share, with sales up approximately 9% in Q1 with the majority of retailers remaining very favorable on the outlook for its key brands in 2017 and importantly allocating more shelf/cooler space.
“Overall we believe tough macros likely pressured traffic and weighed on beverage/c-store sales in the quarter, however our outlook for the balance of the year is for modest improvements,” Herzog concluded.