A5

By STEPHEN LLEWELLYN
llewellyn.stephen@dailygleaner.com

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The people of Fredericton like the new Selection beer from NB Liquor.

The sales results for the first month are in for the controversial government suds and no store sold more of it than the outlet on Prospect Street.

NB Liquor spokeswoman Nora Lacey said Thursday 138,000 litres of Selection beer was sold provincewide between its launch March 12 and April 15.

She said domestic beer sales were up 2.9 per cent, which reverses a trend of declining beer sales.

"That is what we are quite pleased about because part of the rationale for adding a value segment in our domestic beer category was to help stimulate demand," said Lacey.

She said with the arrival of warmer weather and tourist traffic, domestic beer sales will continue to grow.

In terms of sales volume of Selection beer - which comes in both lager and light brands - the Prospect Street store was No. 1, with just more than 6,000 litres sold, Lacey said.

But when it comes to the percentage of Selection beer sold against domestic beer, the store leaders are quite different. Measured that way the Grand Manan store came first, said Lacey.

"Adding a value brand into the domestic beers category has stimulated demand in that market," she said.

The growth in domestic beer sales means that Selection beer isn't stealing market share from other brands, said Lacey.

She said the dollar value of the sales of Selection beer won't be available until the end of April and she didn't have a figure on how much New Brunswickers saved by purchasing Selection beer.

"We usually don't measure it in those terms," said Lacey.

Selection beer costs $18.67 for a 12-pack. A dozen Moosehead Premium Dry costs $20.50.

It remains to be seen if it can keep selling at this pace or whether people were just trying a new brand.

"We understand that this was a launch and there was a lot of media attention around it and people were obviously going to try it through our sampling program in stores," said Lacey. "We hope the trend continues."

Selection beer sales are a small percentage of domestic beer sales.

Lacey said NB Liquor sold four million litres of domestic beer in the same period, which makes Selection beer about three per cent of the market.

Joel Levesque, vice-president of public affairs for Moosehead Breweries, which brews the beer for NB Liquor, said he isn't surprised by the success of Selection beer.

"In New Brunswick, the value segment is underdeveloped," he said. "We thought there was room for some growth."

By contrast, Nova Scotia has a well developed value segment and the Ontario market is saturated with discount beer brands, which make up 40 per cent of sales, he said.

Levesque said Moosehead isn't worried that Selection beer will steal market share from the brewery's brands.

"Our own figures show that last month was a pretty good month for beer sales," he said.