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St Patricks Day 17th March 2022
Are you prepared for St Patrick’s Day? Do you have enough Guinness on your shelves?
St Patricks Day is historically a celebration of the patron saint of St Patrick – he lived in the fifth century and is said to be instrumental in bringing Catholicism to Ireland.
St Patricks is generally marked with a night out, wearing an oversized green hat bearing a shamrock and drinking plenty of stout. Specifically, it seems that Guinness is the favourite – we looked at last year’s sales of Guinness (both Stout and Lager), Irish Whiskey and Magners Cider. Only Guinness stout shows any notable increase in the week of St Patrick’s Day when compared to the weeks before and after.
The chart shows the uplift in sales for the week of St Patrick’s Day and the previous week over the last 3 years. The most recent years have been unusual because of the pandemic which explains the big differences.
• 2019 – pre-pandemic
• 2020 – the start of the pandemic where most categories in c-stores saw strong increases in sales
• 2021 – restrictions were starting to ease but pubs, clubs and restaurants were still closed
For the week of St Patrick’s Day it’s no surprise that Northern Ireland comes out top in sales of Guinness by quite some margin! Across the rest of the UK it seems that London comes out top, followed by the North West and West Midlands.
Current average sales per store of Guinness are ahead of those seen in 2019, they are in line with sales seen in 2021. We suspect that we’ll see a similar uplift to 2019, as restrictions have now gone, but this uplift is coming from a higher base level.
Stores in Northern Ireland should prepare to have extra stock on hand, and stores in other locations should ensure Guinness is in a prominent location to make the most of the sales.
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