After a dramatic year in 2020, the National Beer Wholesalers Association‘s Beer Purchasers Index for January continued to show signs of returning to normal.
The total BPI for January 2021 is at 66.4, about where it was in January 2020 and before the pandemic at 65.7, NBWA said.
The “at-risk inventory” (inventory at risk of going out of code in the next 30 days) measure rose to 37.9 from 25.9 in December 2020, the largest single-month increase since June 2020.
NBWA Chief Economist Lester Jones explained, “A slower than expected December and healthy end-of-year shipments from suppliers significantly changed the industry’s inventory picture.”