Brewery Sales Dropping Sharply, Many Set to Close

The Brewers Association is providing all COVID-19 resources for free so everyone has access to important information to help them weather the pandemic.By Bart Watson

• by Bart Watson

Economist

April 7, 2020

Last week, the Brewers Association launched the second of our surveys designed to gauge the impact the current COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent social distance public health measures are having on small brewers. The results of the first survey can be found here.

For information on survey and analysis methodology, see the note at the bottom of this post.

The results show a sharp drop in craft category sales, massive furloughs or layoffs, and the high likelihood of large numbers of brewery closings without a swift end to social distance measures—which looks increasingly unlikely—or rapid government support for small brewers and hospitality more broadly.

A majority of breweries do not think their business can last three months given current conditions, suggesting thousands of closings.

The final section of this post will discuss the policies that breweries have already found helpful, and what policymakers should consider as immediate steps to take in order to stop or reserve the economic damage that is occurring.

To read more, click this link.