The year 2014 has been concluded. According to Guestmetrics’ on-premise trend, overall beer volume was down -3.4%. Craft Beer's share gains have weakened in December only up +1.2% for the four weeks, which is lower than the +1.9% overall 2014. Premium light's share gains are improving only down -1.5% for December versus -1.9% overall 2014. Overall traffic to the on-premise continued improved trending over the lackluster first half of the year. Guestmetrics contributes the improved trend to "lower gas prices and improved consumer sentiment." Alcohol dollar sales, up +0.6%, helped increase overall food and beverage retail sales, up +2.6%.
In the off-premise channel, Symphony IRI reports multi-outlet and convenience channels for beer volumes finished out the year 2014 up +1.2%, and +3.7% in dollars. In dollars, domestic premiums finished the year flat, sub-premiums were down -2.5%, overall imports were up +8.4% mainly from Mexican and Belgian imports, and craft was up 20.5%. Mexican imports' Y-o-Y volume grows approximately 16%, while Belgian grows about 25% but at a smaller base.
SNA has concluded the sales in year 2014 at 327,706 unit cases, -10.45% lower than the 365,938 unit cases in 2013 but this time purely without any customer inventory loading at year-end. However, when converting the 30-liter keg beer into 7.92-liter case equivalent, 2014 sales is actually 332,506 case-equivalent while 2013 is already converted which yield the actual decline of -9.13%. This is approximately 5 percent below the US market average. For the month of December, SNA sales continue to decline significantly versus same period last year due in major part as a result of significant decrease in promotional activities in the market. SNA sales was at -26.76% on M-o-M basis. We can expect to see the same trend continuing into Q1 of 2015 as the remaining sales team are restricting promotional spending both ATL and BTL activities. Although the sales volume is decreasing, it is expected that the financial result for SNA will be improved in the short-term as a result of this strategy.