Business

Kegger! Beer sales frothy after dry spell

Ahh, that hits the spot.

For the first time in four years, US beer sales are on the rise.

While the uptick last year was modest — about 1.4 percent, according to preliminary numbers tabulated by Beverage Marketing — brewers will take it after the Great Recession of 2008 siphoned off sales volume from 2009 to 2011.

Not unexpectedly, the continued rise of craft beers and imports led the turnaround.

“People are drinking better beers, more often,” said Gary Hemphill, managing director of research at Beverage Marketing, who noted the slight increase would bring total US beer shipments in 2012 to 207.2 million barrels.

And while the overall unemployment rate in the US remains high and wages stagnant, the slightly good news on beer shipments was made a bit better because brewers were able to raise prices last year, which boosted revenue.

That could account for the recent giddyap in brewer stocks. Anheuser-Busch InBev has seen its ADRs grow by 41.4 percent over the 12 months ended March 1. It reported last week US shipments rose 0.7 percent in 2012, its first increase since 2008.

Shares of Sam Adams soared 61.1 percent over the same period; Heinenken’s ADR’s gained 26.7 percent over the trailing 12 months.

Also boosting 2012 sales, says Beverage Marketing’s Managing Director Brian Sudano: a warm dry winter in most places of the nation, cheaper gasoline and abundant leap-year celebrations that boosted first-quarter sales by 2 percent from a year earlier.