Convenience store beverage sales were up 4-5% over the Memorial holiday weekend, a slight deceleration from last year as weak energy sales increased.

Wells Fargo recently conducted a “Beverage Buzz” survey of beverage retailers representing thousands of c-store locations across the country to get a sense of beverage trends during the recent Memorial Day holiday.

After tallying the numbers, c-store beverage sales growth remains soft at 4% as the summer selling season kicks off a survey of retailers representing at least 15,000 convenience stores nationwide.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Some key takeaways from the survey include: (1) Total beverage sales were up 4-5% over the holiday weekend, a slight deceleration from last year, as weak energy sales increased; grocery promotions, out-of-stocks and poor weather in many regions did offset strong results in bottled waters and import beers; (2) As far as beer and adult beverage sales, Constellation Brands (STZ) is showing no signs of slowing, given increased shelf space and new innovation with double-digit sales growth expected in 2017.

In addition, Monster’s sales are expected to remain soft for 2017 (+3-4%) as execution issues and limited innovation continue to hinder growth. Also, retailers are optimistic about Dr. Pepper’s Bai brands, but we see little upside potential to its revised 40-50% fiscal 2017 growth target.

Lastly, retailers reported some ongoing issues with out-of-stocks for Coca-Cola and Monster products in some territories recently transitioned to independent Coke bottlers.