Beverage Alcohol In 2020 Performs Better Than Expected

New IWSR forecasts show greater resilience than initially projected, with positive news on impending vaccine potentially pushing beverage alcohol recovery even further.

Total beverage alcohol will perform better than expected this year, but forecasts point to a slow long-term recovery, according to far-reaching new research from IWSR.

Based on how the pandemic has unfolded in 2020 so far, IWSR has conducted an in-depth mid-year assessment on the outlook for the global beverage alcohol industry. IWSR reviewed beverage alcohol consumption in 20 key markets, including the global travel retail channel (representing 75%+ of total global alcohol consumption). The key markets reviewed were: Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Poland, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Thailand, Turkey, UK, US, and the global travel retail channel.

“Given the incredibly tough measures the industry has continued to face due to Covid-19, it’s encouraging to see that beverage alcohol in the 19 focus countries is only projected to decline by -8% in 2020, rather than by the double digit losses originally expected. Excluding national spirits such as baijiu and shochu, total beverage alcohol in the 19 focus countries will recover to 2019 levels by 2024. We may see that recover even faster now, given the recent news on encouraging vaccine trials,” says Mark Meek, CEO of IWSR Drinks Market Analysis. “The rise of e-commerce and the efforts by retailers and on-premise operators to adapt to this crisis, coupled with consumers expanding to new occasions, created a dynamic, albeit challenging, new environment for beverage alcohol.”

The US and China – key growth drivers of global beverage alcohol – prove resilient