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NEW NORMAL

The IWSR and other statistic researchers the US and Canada will see increases in be-
has identified some significant trends with verage alcohol volume consumption in 2020
the results of its research, that will shape the (both at over 2% total volume increases). In
global beverage alcohol market in 2021. total, beverage alcohol volumes across the 19
countries are set to fall by -8% in 2020. Global
IT IS SAID PEOPLE ARE DRINKING travel retail volumes are forecast to be down
MORE DURING THE PANDEMIC -68% in 2020.
IWSR looks to answer this question with the A shut down of all non-essential businesses
publication of an in-depth assessment of be- has affected the service industry sector the
verage alcohol consumption and consumer hardest. According to the National Restaurant
behaviour in 2020. Association (NRA), there are over 1 million re-
staurants and 15.6 million employees across
the US. The overall impact nationwide accor-
ding to the NRA “indicate that restaurants and
the foodservice industry could sustain $225
billion in losses and eliminate 5-7 million jobs
over the next three months.”
The key reason for this decline is largely
down to decreased purchasing in the on-trade.
Some countries were able to bear the brunt of
the on-trade closures better than others. In
Australia, for example, the beverage alcohol
market is generally weighted more towards
the off-premise, which meant lockdowns did
not impact drinking occasions as drastically
as in other countries. Australian wine consu-
mers, for example, almost completely trans-
ferred on-trade purchasing behaviours to the
In the early days of Covid-19 lockdown, re- off-trade. Total beverage alcohol volume con-
ports of consumers panic buying beverage al- sumption in Australia will fall by approxima-
cohol led to the impression that people were tely -1% in 2020. However, in many markets,
drinking more than usual during the pande- the increase in at-home consumption did not
mic. Although pantry loading behaviour soon compensate for the closures of the on-trade.
tapered off, many industry watchers were
asking the same question. AT-HOME CONSUMPTION
IWSR looks to answer this question with the Is it the new drinking occasion? Covid-19
publication of an in-depth assessment of be- lockdowns and the subsequent rise of the
verage alcohol consumption and consumer at-home drinking occasion forced many
behaviour this past year.
IWSR data shows that beverage alcohol vo-
lume consumption during the pandemic was
down across almost all markets, including
Australia, Brazil, China, Colombia, France, Ger-
many, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Poland, Ru-
ssia, South Africa, Spain, Thailand, Turkey, the
UK, and the global travel retail channel. Only
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