Imports Big Winners During Memorial Day

But Corona, Heineken lagged on price increases.

Imported beers were the big winners during the two-week Memorial Day period, gaining 1.2 points of share in the nation’s supermarkets, according to figures from ACNielsen.

Imports made their move as overall industry volume declined by 1 percent during the two weeks ended June 3. Imports now command 14.5 percent of supermarket case volume.

The two biggest names in imports, the Corona Extra franchise (including Corona Extra Light) and the Heineken franchise (including the new Heineken Premium Light), both showed growth. But they did it on the back of lower price increases than – and narrowing price gaps with – the domestic beer industry.

Overall, beer case prices were up an average of 3.4 percent during the period. Miller Brewing Company increased prices 2 percent; Anheuser-Busch increased prices 2.2 percent; Molson Coors ratcheted them up 3.1 percent.

Corona Extra, meanwhile, rose by 1.7 percent. Corona Light was up 1.6 percent. Heineken boosted its case price by only 0.3 percent.

Those small increases translated into narrowing price gaps with the domestic brewers. For the 13 weeks ended June 3, the Corona price gap to mainstream light beer (the biggest piece of the domestic beer market) slipped 1.9 percent. The Heineken gap slid 2.8 percent.

The relatively soft pricing by Corona and Heineken masked the full strength of import pricing. Including Corona and Heineken, import pricing increased 2.8 percent. If those beers are backed out, import pricing grew by 3.3 percent.