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The Stovepipe Challenge: Weighing 19.2 Fluid Ounces of Opportunity and Risk

Much of the growth in convenience-store beer coolers is in the form of large, single-serve packages—but that doesn’t make the stovepipe a sure bet for all breweries.

Industry All Access
Photo: Courtesy Great Lakes Brewing
Photo: Courtesy Great Lakes Brewing

“All eyes are on single-serve.”

That’s how Joe Sepka, cofounder of the consulting and data analytics firm 3 Tier Beverages, describes the current state of convenience stores’ beer coolers. According to Nielsen data that 3 Tier analyzed, the single-serve can remains the top growth driver of new dollars in convenience stores across all of the major subsegments of beer so far in 2023. That package format is currently responsible for about 70 percent of all flavored malt–beverage sales across the channel. Even some grocery stores have begun to stock single-serve cans in addition to traditional multipacks.

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