“Being best in craft beer also means being best in value brands—you can’t succeed by only growing one segment,” says Anheuser-Busch’s vice president of small format sales.
Anheuser-Busch hosted a media event for the trade press, Wednesday Nov. 19-20 in St. Louis, to share best practices in driving beer sales, beer and food pairing concepts, and 2015 strategy and new products.
In a best practices presentation, CJ Watson, vice president of small format sales, for Anheuser-Busch noted best practices for driving beer sales in convenience stores involve a balanced approach to beer across all segments and price points. “If you’re not leveraging every piece of business it’s difficult to grow,” he said.
He outlined the differences between top quartile and bottom quartile performers in the beer category at convenience stores. “Being best in craft beer also means being best in value brands—you can’t succeed by only growing one segment,” Watson said. Top performing stores have 3.2 feet more space dedicated to beer than bottom performers.
He outlined five best practices where retailers can up their game:
1. Singles are huge. Some 46% of single serve beer shoppers buy 4+ days a week.
- Good–drive singles mix to 22%
- Better–drive singles mix to 26%
- Best –drive singles mix to 30%
2. Use 2-fer programs to increase sales—top performers used clear and consistent signage.
3. Maximize use of displays—Top performers displayed cold singles and implemented a minimum of three displays.
4. Day Parting—ensure you are in stock on key items. For a rating of “best” Watson recommended a minimum of four days of supply in stock combined with a daypart strategy.
5. Increase doors—More doors of beer equal more sales. The “best” performers had a minimum of five doors with 110 SKUs balanced across all segments and price points.
Anheuser-Busch also showcased how it is using a mix of internal and third party analytics to leverage insights that help c-stores make determinations and decisions from why sales are down at one location and what to do, to the best assortment for that location to how adding a beer cave or an extra door would impact the bottom line specific to that location.
Stay tuned to CSD for more on best practices in the beer category.