WSWA Sees “Affordable Luxury” Driving Spirits Trends Into 2025
November 5, 2024The Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America’s SipSource data tracker forecasts that consumers will continue to shift to spirits brands in the “affordable luxury” segment—mainly in the $18-$25 and $25-$50 price bands—amid challenging conditions for the industry. Overall, SipSource projects a decline for spirits in the U.S. through the rest of this year, and at least the first half of 2025, with the group projecting depletions to decline 5.65% by the end of the year and by 5.59% for the first half of 2025.
At the individual category level, SipSource is projecting declines in vodka to broadly remain in line with the overall industry but says American whiskey could be in for a sharper drop, potentially 6.82% by Q2 2025. SipSource attributes the overall decline to a variety of factors, including the rise of lower-priced RTDs, the U.S.’s growing cannabis market, and post-pandemic consumption normalization. The projections are based on models leveraging depletions from 19 WSWA member wholesalers, more than 10 macroeconomic indicators, and other data.—Shane English
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