The Fastest-Growing Beer Brand in America

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Published
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The Fastest-Growing Beer Brand in America

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There are several hundred beer brands in America. Most are regional or even brewed for distribution from a single location. Microbreweries, unheard of several decades ago, are now a regular part of the beer-drinking landscape. However, several breweries continue to dominate the market share, and each has several brands. According to the Beer Exchange, Anheuser-Busch, Molson Coors and Pabst are among the largest breweries.

Breweries often rely on a small number of brands for their sales. Anheuser-Busch relies on Budweiser and Bud Light. A boycott cost Bud Light, the leading beer in the country by sales volume, which was down by 30% in late August and early September. Fox News Digital spoke to Harry Schuhmacher, the Beer Business Daily publisher, who said the huge drop could not be reversed, “That tells me that this is quasi-permanent, meaning those consumers are just lost forever.”

As Bud Light sales have declined, a brewer that competes with Anheuser Busch has picked up share. Constellation Brands owns Modelo Especial. According to data, it was the fastest-growing beer brand in America three months ago. Statista reports it has kept that advantage through the end of October. Modelo Especial sales for the year are up 13.9% compared to the same period a year ago. Just behind it are Michelob Ultra, an Anheuser Busch brand, up just over 8.3%, and Corona Extra, which is also up 8.3%, and which Constellation Brands owns. (See which 18 beers are trending right now.)

Modelo was first brewed in 1925 in Mexico. The beer has two sub-brands. One is Modelo Especial. The other is Negra Modelo. Parent Constellation Brands owns several other well-known products, including Corona and Svedka Vodka.

Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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