The beer market - Italy

1.2 The European market

In ****, retail beer sales in Europe were estimated at $*** billion, accounting for the largest share (***).

Value of retail alcohol sales by category Europe, ****, in % Source: ****

Looking at the history of beer sales, we can see a slight growth over the period ****-**** with a CAGR of +*.*% over the period. This growth ...

1.3 The Italian market

beer production has been growing since ****, and consumption is following the same trend. As the chart below shows, production went from a volume of **.* million hectoliters to one of **.* million hectoliters in ****, before declining in ****. Consumption, on the other hand, reached a volume of **.* million hectoliters in ****, a considerable growth since ...

1.4 Imports and exports

beer imports and exports have been growing for years, as the chart below shows. In fact, exports went from a value of ***.* million in ****, to a value of ***.* million in ****, registering a CAGR of *.* percent over the period. As for imports, they were worth ***.* million euros in **** and reached a value ...

1.5 Impact of Covid-19

The COVID-** pandemic had devastating effects on many markets and industries. Because of the nature of the virus (***) sanitary measures were put in place, the most significant of which were mandatory, government-mandated closures that kept people at home and halted most economic activities. Italy, being the first European country affected by ...

2.1 Demand characteristics

Beer in Italy has always enjoyed a privileged position in Italians' preferences, second only to wine. (***)Its consumption has also been driven in recent years by the increase in per capita dwgli alcohol consumption, as the graph below shows. In fact, within * years the latter has increased from **.* liters in **** to ...

2.2 Beer conquers Italians' drinking habits

beer and wine have historically been popular spirits among Italians. In recent decades, however, there has been a reversal in the popularity of wine compared to beer. While in **** wine was consumed in almost double the amount of beer, in **** the per capita consumption of the two spirits is almost identical, ...

2.3 Growing interest in specialty beers

Specialty beers

The category of specialty beers includes all types of beer other than lagers, by origin, taste and/or alcohol content. Between **** and ****, the said category grew impressively in both volume (***).[***]

Specialty beer consumption occasions

A survey conducted by Doxa on the Italian territory on the consumption of special beers ...

3.1 Value chain and beer market structure

The Italian beer value chain consists of four categories of activities:

Each activity adds value to the economy in the form of "shared value." Shared value is composed of the added value of production, employment, levy, and economic impacts; and in **** amounted to *.* billion euros.

Source: ****

A closer look at each ...

3.2 Production

Diagram of production of one hectoliter of beerItaly, ****

The raw materials used in Italy to produce **.** million hectoliters of beer are shown below:

Source: ****

All figures include microbreweries and non-member breweries.

Italian beer production has grown steadily since ****, reaching ** *** million hectoliters in ****. Most domestic production is consumed domestically, about ** percent.

The ...

3.3 A fragmented industry

As mentioned above, the beer industry has an impressive number of players involved in the entire value chain, from supplier to retailer, leading to a fragmented outlook. Direct employment has been estimated at *,*** workers in ****. Moreover, the sector as a whole is expanding due to a growing presence of microbreweries across ...

3.4 Distribution

beer remains by far in the hands of the off-trade channel, whose incidence has grown over the ****-**** time frame to ** percent, consequently leaving a smaller portion of the market share to the on-trade. This trend was accentuated by the **** pandemic and the restrictions that followed.

Distribution channel for beer sales Italy, ...

4.1 Breakdown of beer categories

standard beers continue to outperform all other categories, capturing ** percent of total sales, followed by special and premium beers, which share similar market shares (***), while the economy category holds a small percentage of sales-* percent.

Breakdown of beer sales by category Italy, ****, in % Source: ****

Increased interest in beer consumption by a ...

4.2 Brand-oriented supply

The Italian beer industry is highly concentrated in terms of supply, which means that few companies dominate supply in the market.

The graph below shows the breakdown of supply in **** (***). As we can see, Heineken Italia, already the market leader, has become more important in the past year. Birra Peroni is ...

4.3 Price, packaging and size of beers

Following the categorization of beers into premium, mid-priced, and economy, one can observe a striking price difference. In fact, premium beers can cost up to fourteen times more than economy beers-for example, Weissbier/Weizen/Wheat Beer EUR**.** per liter versus Alpen * Plato EUR*.** per liter.

Source: ****

The most popular sizes for ...

5.1 Market regulation

The beer industry has encountered strict regulation in Italy for many years due to excise legislation. In Europe certain goods are subject to excise duty, and alcohol is among them. An excise tax is an indirect tax that is then levied on the production or consumption of certain products (***). The tax ...

6.1 Segmentation

• Heineken Italia
• Birra Peroni
• AB InBev
• Birra Castello
• Birra Morena