The current state of the alcohol industry

Sebastien Derbomez Brand Advocacy Leader at William Grant & Sons, joins TheStreet to discuss the current state of the alcohol industry.

Transcript

00:00I just want to get a general sense of the industry, like sales for the entire industry

00:07have been down for seven months. It looks like 2024 is going to be a down year.

00:13What's happening? Is it just inflation, where people are just like, hey, it costs too much to

00:18drink? Who would think that drinking would be down? I know. I don't think a lot of people saw

00:25that coming, to be honest. But many of the reasons you mentioned, I think it's a combination of all

00:31that. At the back of the pandemic, I think people realized that they just wanted to drink less.

00:37During the pandemic, people were drunk. People were stuck at home, and it's a reality. But now

00:45people are out, they're busy, and they're drinking less. It's tough out there financially with

00:52inflation and all that. The price went up. People are trying to be more healthy.

00:57In general, the industry has been hard. Premix, it's what kept the business afloat a little bit.

01:04And it's also at the same time hurting spirit in general. So people like premix cocktail,

01:09Ken cocktail, that's still climbing, but in the detriment of the spirit itself.

01:15So people wanted that easy option. But for us in particular, because we had the chance to

01:21have a premium product offering, it's been okay. Because like I say, people would rather

01:27spend money on quality versus quantity. But yeah, it's tough out there.