TL;DR: On-premise spirits sales are holding up better than off-premise sales, according to recent SipSource reporting on wine and spirits volume. The practical move for a spirits brand is to read venue-level signals, support the accounts that still create demand, and measure what happens after the placement.
On-premise spirits sales are holding up better than off-premise sales, which changes the useful question for spirits brands. It is not whether the category is healthy in the abstract. It is which accounts still create demand people can feel, and what those accounts need from a brand right now.
Recent SipSource reporting showed wine and spirits volume down 2.8% on-premise over the latest twelve months, compared with a 7.5% decline off-premise. The same report showed spirits revenue down 7.1% over the latest three months, with volume down 5.7%. Those figures do not mean every bar is thriving, or that every bottle on a back bar is moving. They do show that the social occasion is holding up better than the take-home occasion (Vinetur).
The channel split changes the job
When retail softens, it is tempting to respond with more reach, more discounts, and more generalized awareness. That can make the activity report look busy without giving an operator a reason to pour your product again.
On-premise gives a brand more ways to earn the next order. A bartender can recommend it. A menu can give it a context. A dinner, tasting, or small event can make the bottle part of a memory instead of another item competing for shelf space.
That does not make hospitality a rescue boat. A 2.8% decline is still a decline. Guests are paying closer attention to price, operators are protecting their margins, and a brand that arrives with a stack of materials but no useful operating plan is adding work to an already full room.
Read the venue before you ask for the placement
A spirits brand should know what stage an account is in before deciding what to offer. An opening soon account needs a different conversation from a bar that has been open for three years, and both are different from a restaurant whose beverage program is quietly losing relevance.
The BuildoutFeed work made this visible. A single liquor filing was weak evidence. A liquor signal combined with construction activity, an inspection, or another independent record created a more useful picture of what the venue might need next. The customer-facing product is now closed, but the underlying NYC pre-opening dataset continues to power other work (BuildoutFeed case study).
The lesson applies to brand work. Do not start with a list of every account in a city. Start with the accounts that have moved. A new beverage director, a revised menu, a second location, an event series, or a change in license status is a reason to pay attention. It is not a guarantee. It is a reason to make a better call.
What I would measure now
I would give each account one clear next action and one way to know whether it worked.
- Did the bartender or beverage director ask for a second order?
- Did the product make the menu, and did it stay there?
- Did a tasting create qualified follow-up instead of a pile of samples?
- Did the venue use the story in a way that guests understood?
- Did the account reorder without being chased?
The point is not to turn hospitality into a spreadsheet. It is to keep a good placement from disappearing into one.
The spirits industry is also arguing about trade, tourism, responsibility, and the role of hospitality in culture. That was the shape of Spirit of Life Week in Brussels this month, where spiritsEUROPE put bars, restaurants, tourism, and responsible consumption in the same conversation (Travel Tomorrow). That framing feels more useful than treating hospitality as a channel code in a sales report.
On-premise is not a magic answer. It is a living environment where brands can still earn preference in public, one account at a time. The teams that notice which rooms are moving will have a better chance than the teams that keep sending the same deck to everyone.
Jason
