Meeting the Trade Development Challenge

Scott Moore recently joined the Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits team as the company’s SVP of Off-Premise National accounts. He’s responsible for supplier planning, as well as driving development and implementation of customer annual operating plans. He’s well versed in off-premise trends, so I recently spoke to him about the state of the off-premise industry and which categories wholesalers should be watching.

Beverage Wholesaler: What are the biggest trends impacting the off-premise market right now?

Scott Moore: Looking at the big picture, spirit sales are up 3.5% and case volume is up 2%. Breaking it down further, craft is up 36.5% in sales, and represents 45% of the dollar growth for the spirits category. It shows people are willing to try new things and that innovation within the spirits category still works. That’s what craft is all about.

Most of the dollar growth within the category is coming from the over-$10 segment, so consumers are continuing to move up. The fastest-growing segment is over-$30, and the largest segment for growth is $15-25. So people are trading up, they’re trying new things, and within the spirits industry you have flavored whiskey and Irish whiskey showing fast growth.

Beverage Wholesaler: