Seasonal business: Great Lakes’ Christmas Ale has strong showing in stores

The temperature may still indicate that it’s winter in the Midwest, but with winter beers creeping off the shelves, the season certainly feels over. A sad time for craft beer drinkers, but a good time to reflect on the season and year that was for craft breweries. Great Lakes Brewing Co. (GLBC), one of the premier brewers in the Midwest, reports that it had another successful holiday season thanks to its local favorite Christmas Ale.

Fresh 2012 sales data shows that the GLBC seasonal Christmas Ale continues to produce impressive numbers. Christmas Ale is a holiday ale brewed with honey, spiced with fresh ginger and cinnamon, and available while supplies last starting in November. Approximately 359 batches of Christmas Ale were produced in 2012, which utilized more than 215,000 lbs of honey (almost $500,000) and 7,000 lbs each of fresh ginger and cinnamon.

Although this spiced holiday ale is available just eight weeks out of the year, sales data from SymphonyIRI, a leading market research group, showed the following stats for Christmas Ale in the grocery store channel:

In Cleveland, Ohio scan data:

• No. 1 beer brand in dollar sales, domestic segments included, in the last 13 weeks, YTD Dec. 30, 2012.
• No. 1 craft brand in dollar sales for the entire year of 2012, YTD Dec. 30, 2012.

In State of Ohio scan data:

• No. 1 brand in dollar sales in craft/import segments in the last 13 weeks YTD Dec. 30, 2012.
• Christmas Ale generated 344 percent more dollars than the next closest brand in that time frame.
• No. 1 craft brand in dollar sales for the entire year of 2012 entire year of 2012 YTD Dec. 30, 2012.

In Total US scan data:

• No. 9 craft brand in dollar sales in the entire country for the last 13 weeks YTD Dec. 30, 2012, despite Category Weighted Distribution of only 7.2 percent.