Tipping point approaches

According to the latest BBPA Statistical Handbook, the point is rapidly approaching at which British off-trade beer sales exceed those in the on-trade.

The proportion of beer sales in the on-trade against the off-trade fell last year at the joint fastest rate seen across the past decade, and it’s “only a matter of time” before most sales come from shops.

That’s according to the British Beer & Pub Association’s (BBPA) new Statistical Handbook, which says the on-trade accounted for 50.9% of beer sales by volume last year, 2.3 percentage points lower than in 2009.

The year-on-year percentage fall between 2009/2010 was only matched in the past 10 years in 2007/2008, when it fell from 55.9% to 53.6%.

It follows a decade of steady decline in the on-trade’s proportion of beer sales — the on-trade accounted for 67.4% of sales in 2000.

It may well come in the year to the end of June 2012, following stocking up of beer prior to England’s participation in the European Football Championship, and drowning of sorrows after the inevitable limp exit.

And I wonder why 2007-2008 showed a record decline in the proportion of on-trade beer sales. What could have happened to cause that?

Canadian beer blogger Alan McLeod isn’t too bothered about it.