The hospitality sector added more jobs than any other part of the economy during the month. The industry unemployment dropped from 29% to 25% as a result of workers returning to their posts after the lockdown.
Despite the positive signs, market analyst Jon Moramarco expects US on-premise alcohol sales to decrease by 48% in 2020.
Moramarco, the managing partner of BW166, estimates that off-trade sales will increase by 13.7%, leaving an overall decline of 12.5% in total beverage alcohol for the calendar year.
He expects wine sales to be up 1.3% by volume but 11.8% down by value as consumers switch the off-trade. Within spirits, the off-trade is projected to grow 17% in volume and 18.7% in value, while on-premise sales are forecast to drop 48% in both volume and value.
“The largest wineries are in fairly good shape, but loss gets significantly greater for smaller and smaller wineries,” said Moramarco. “The smaller you are the bigger the challenge. The same can be said for craft brewers and craft distillers.”
