With consumers becoming more comfortable going out, the on-premise Channel Shifting Index reached a new high of 85.3 for the 12 months ending February 2022, a two point improvement versus the 83 CSI for the 12 months ending January 2022. Both wine and spirits posted gains. But the latest SipSource CSI “is still lagging where it was pre-COVID,” said Danny Brager, SipSource analyst. Wine’s recovery lags well behind spirits. Brager added:
“We would expect to see further on-premise share improvements as COVID cases decline and restrictions fall, along with warmer weather just around the corner. At the same time, some consumer behaviors like where they choose to eat and drink might persist, benefiting off-premise. So it’s still a hill to climb for on-premise to get back to pre-COVID levels.”
Regionally, the pace of recovery still differs across the country, with the on-premise CSI for South Central and South Atlantic generally leading other geographic areas.
Relative to its on-premise share pre-COVID, recovery of this channel’s share has been fastest for rum and flavored vodka and slowest for Irish Whiskey, Scotch, Bourbon, Rye and Flavored Whiskey, according to SipSource. Rate of share recovery though, even when lagging where it was pre-COVID, is not necessarily a problem – in some cases (Irish Whiskey and Rye for example) the segment has grown extremely well in the off-premise during COVID, so COVID may have just shifted the on- versus off-premise channel balance.
SipSource is an affiliate of Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America.
Beyond those segments above, ready-to-drink (RTD) cocktails is the single category where the on-premise is hugely more important now than it was pre-COVID (its on-premise CSI is now over 160) as a result of its rise in consumer popularity, its convenience to operators, and drinks-to-go legalization in several states. At the same time though, RTD spirit cocktails volume is still largely off-premise, as the latter still accounts for 93% of its volume.