Attitudes About Drinking Are Changing. What Does That Mean for the Booze Business? | Global News Avenue

Drinking on the rocks?

Young Americans drink less than previous generations, and beverage company executives have different ideas about what drives it to drink: tough but economic conditions or longer-lasting cultural change. Either way, the industry sees changes in purchasing behavior, they say.

For example, a Gallup survey released last year said young people are more likely to notice alcohol-related health risks, while drinking less. Bill Shufelt, CEO of the non-alcoholic beer company Sports Brewery, said at a UBS conference in Manhattan this week that Americans have a much more sense of how they think about alcohol than the industry.

Schuffulte said nearly half of Americans said they wanted to reduce drinkers, a desire held particularly widely among millennials and Gen Z, and he said it was better –Education on health issues And there are more alcohol-free options.

According to a survey conducted by global insights and data company IWSR, half of millennials and 60% of millennials and 60% avoid drinking in the six months of 2024.

“These may just be a huge generationalist headwind that I think is just a very early situation,” Shufelt said. “The information has not been backed up from consumers.”

Morgan Stanley analysts earlier this monthBF.A; BF.B), This makes Jack Daniels“We do not want the U.S. spiritual category to regain its historical 4%+ growth rate in demographic structural pressures (small amounts of alcohol consumption), health/health/temperature trends (including GLP-1 effects) and cannabis structural pressures,” said in a note.

For some young Americans, it might be more about money

Some of the reasons for the change of taste may be shorter, citing economic pressures and rising alcohol prices, Schuffulte said. He said legacy alcohol companies can still attract people, and alcohol (the “5,000-year-old trend”) is not the irrelevant edge.

Brown-Forman CEO Lawson Whiting said at a UBS event that alcohol spending for young Americans has fallen. He said health problems are not the main reason for this kind of hindrance.

“If you’re 21, 22, 23, and you’re just graduating from college or anything that’s possible, it’s going to come up. He said many consumers are cost-conscious and have been buying small amounts of alcohol as a way to save.”

Michel Doukeris, CEO of Anheuser-Busch inbev (budThe company behind Budweiser and Michelob Ultra said the shift could be an anomaly caused by Covid-19. He said his 22-year-old daughter attended part of college on Zoom, so he asked him to improve on how to handle her first happy hours of work.

“Covid is a very destructive event that captures a generation of 17, 18 years old in today’s legal drinking age, but not all.” As people approached their 20s, he said, “We see normalization of certain behaviors.”