World: World’s ten largest beer brands lose 1% in sales volume

The world’s ten largest beer brands have in total lost 3.9 million hl or -0.9% in 2016 compared to the year before, according to data published by Euromonitor International.  Biggest loser with -4.2 million hl or -8.4% was China’s second largest beer brand Tsingtao. The brewery already reports declining sales for years and has lost in total 6.6 million hl or nearly one out of eight beers sold over the last three years. In the worldwide ranking Tsingtao lost two ranks ending up now on position 4.

The rest of the list remained unchanged although half of the 10 brands lost volume sales in 2016 while the others could sell more beer than the year before.

Overall winners were the brands Corona Extra (+1.9 mln hl or +8.6%) and Budweiser (+2.1 mln hl or +4.7%), both so called focus brands of the world’s largest brewer AB InBev. The brands could profit from AB InBev’s takeover of SABMiller in 2016 and the increased availability in new markets. The other AB InBev brands in the top 10 list like Bud Light, Skol, Harbin and Brahma, which are only considered local champions by AB InBev  (inside.beer, 18.8.2016) mostly lost volumes sales with the exception of Harbin.

Skol, the second biggest loser on the list, is a brand, which stems from the creation of Skol International, a company formed of Allied Breweries (UK), Labatt (Canada), Pripps-Bryggerierna (Sweden) and Unibra (Belgium) in 1964 with the aim of creating a worldwide beer brand. Today the brand rights for Skol are held by three different companies; AB InBev in South America, Unibra in Africa and Carlsberg in all other countries. By far the most important market for Skol is Brazil, where it is the most popular beer. The brand was originally produced by Caracu in Brazil, which was later bought by Brahma in 1980, which later went on to become part of AB InBev. Overall difficulties of the Brazilian beer market, which can be also seen by the poor performance of Brahma, may have been the predominant effect for the strong volume loss of Skol.

The world’s ten largest beer brands (based on data supplied by Euromonitor International):

  1. Snow (2016: 105.6 mln hl, +0,5%, 2015:105.1 mln hl))
  2. Bud Light (2016: 46.9 mln hl, -3.3%, 2015: 48.5 mln hl)
  3. Budweiser(2016: 46.7 mln hl, +4.7%, 2015: 44.6 mln hl)
  4. Tsingtao (2016: 45.9 mln hl, -8.4%, 2015: 50.1 mln hl)
  5. Skol (2016: 36.4 mln hl, -5.2%, 2015: 38.4 mln hl)
  6. Yanjing (2016: 32.3 mln, -4.7%, 2015: 33.9 mln hl)
  7. Heineken (2016: 31.9 mln hl, +3.2%, 2015: 30.9 mln hl)
  8. Harbin (2016: 29.3 mln hl, +3.2%, 2015: 28.4 mln hl)
  9. Brahma (2016: 27.1 mln hl, -3.2%, 2015: 28.0 mln hl)
  10. Corona Extra (2016: 24.0 mln hl, +8.6%, 2015: 22.1 mln hl)

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