IRI Announces Annual Top 30 Beer Brand Performers and Top 15 New Brands

Business Wire,  March 31, 2008  

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Twenty of Top 30 Beer Brands are High-End Brands

CHICAGO -- The IRI Beer, Wine and Spirits Practice today announced its highly-anticipated "Top 30 Beer Brand Performers in 2007," a revealing industry look at the 30 fastest growing beer brands across the beer market. IRI also unveiled its "Top 15 New Beer Brands in 2007," a list of emerging new brand entries.

For the Top 30 Beer Brand Performers ranking, IRI analyzed volume growth, share of segment trends, everyday base pricing, and incremental sales growth in 2007 versus 2006 to determine the brands with the strongest performance in the beer industry.

"The historic trend of consumers trading up and paying a premium price for their favorite brands continued in 2007," said Bump Williams, general manager, IRI Beer, Wine and Spirits Practice. "In fact, 20 of the top 30 Beer performers are high-end brands that include 13 imports and seven craft brands. Brewers, Distributors and Retailers are doing a phenomenal job of meeting the ever-changing tastes of consumer demands with their new product innovations. The key now is getting the proper amount of shelf space and distribution in the right stores across multiple trade channels to support these power brands."

Notables, such as Bud Light, Miller Lite and Coors Light are on the list, but the coveted No. 1 brand goes to a super premium beer, Blue Moon Belgian White Ale, brewed by Molson Coors Brewing. Import beer brands have a very strong showing in the ranking this year with such brands as Heineken Premium Light Lager, Stella Artois Lager, Newcastle Brown Ale and Guinness Draught. Craft beers also remain popular with Samuel Adams Boston Lager, New Belgium Fat Tire Amber Ale, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale and Shiner Bock among the brands making the list. Of course, domestic brands will never go out of style. Busch Light, Keystone Light, Yuengling Traditional Lager and Steel Reserve High Gravity Lager remain strong brands.

The Top 30 Beer Brand Performers ranking is designed to highlight the brands that experienced significant year-over-year growth across total U.S. supermarkets in 2007. In addition to looking at volume and dollar sales, IRI also examined pricing, share growth and incremental volume and dollar contribution.

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* Minimum of 500,000 cases sold in total U.S. supermarkets for 52 weeks ending Dec. 31, 2007

"While we've seen double-digit growth for Blue Moon during the past six years, it's really been a 12-year success story," said Sara Mirelez, vice president of marketing for Blue Moon Brewing Company. "Not only did we focus on brewing the highest quality beer, we also developed an overall sensory experience rooted in the quality of the beer, the serving ritual and the unique brewing process and allowed consumers to discover it. We're very proud of Blue Moon's success and for being named the No. 1 performer in the beer industry by IRI."

Providing forward-looking insight about key brands to watch in the year ahead, IRI also announced the following Top 15 New Beer Brands in 2007:

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* New brands did not report any IRI sales data prior to Jan. 2, 2007

"It's all about flavor in 2007," added Williams. "From pomegranate and cranberry to pineapple and orange grapefruit, these new flavor product innovations are definitely hitting the right note with consumers."

For complete details on the Top 30 Beer Brand Performers, contact Bump Williams at bump.williams@infores.com.

About IRI

IRI is the world's leading provider of consumer, shopper, and retail market intelligence and insights supporting 95 percent of the FORTUNE Global 500 consumer packaged goods (CPG), retail and healthcare companies. Only IRI offers the unique combination of integrated market information, automated and predictive analytics, innovative enabling technologies, and domain expertise. With IRI, leading retailers and manufacturers are able to quickly discover breakthrough insights driving smarter decisions and actions across the enterprise for breakthrough results. Companies around the world depend on IRI for improved productivity, stronger brands, and dramatic revenue growth. For more information, visit http://us.infores.com.

Editor's Note: Specific brands and/or products listed are either trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

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