People drank a lot of alcohol last year. Between a trade war and COVID bar closings, you’d think the alcohol industry would have slowed down, but 2020 drove people to drink hard liquor. According to the Distilled Spirits Council of the U.S., supplier revenues for liquor were up 7.7% in 2020. Liquor sales rose faster than beer and wine, while in the spirits category—tequila and brandy saw “bigger gains” than whiskey and vodka. At Brown-Forman, where overall sales were up 4.1%, sales of Jack Daniel’s Country Cocktails like Back Jack Cola, Lynchburg Lemonade, and Downhome Punch, more than doubled over the past year. YPulse’s nightlife and drinking report found that while there was a spike in daily drinking in 2020 among young consumers, their consumption has mostly returned to pre-COVID levels. (Bloomberg)
