Budweiser retains PPL crown in top-10 league
Budweiser has lived up to its "King of beers" marketing slogan by maintaining its position as the best-selling bottled lager.
According to new figures from AC Nielsen for the last 12 months until September, the American brew still reigns over rivals in the £946m premium packaged lager (PPL) market.
Beck's was another non-mover this year holding on to its second place position from 2003.
Across the top five, Stella Artois made the biggest gains in terms of brand ranking, snatching third place from Holsten Pils.
Interbrew said Stella Artois' breakthrough was a result of its market-leading position in the premium draught lager arena.
Claiming that Stella accounts for half of all pints of premium lager sold in Britain, Colin Pedrick, managing director of on-trade sales at Interbrew, said: "Despite its success, there is still an opportunity to build the scale of the brand in the PPL sector. (Bottled) Stella Artois is stocked by little more than three in 10 on-trade outlets compared with the number-one PPL brand, which is stocked by nine out of 10 outlets."
Mexican lager Corona also made impressive gains, steaming ahead of San Miguel and Budvar to claim seventh place.
Meanwhile, Foster's Ice has dropped out of the top-10 list this year, making space for Kronenbourg to nip in behind Budvar at the bottom end of the table.
Sales of PPLs account for 7.5% of on-trade beer volumes, compared to more than 50% which is sold on draught.
The top 10 premium packaged lagers
1 (1) Budweiser
2 (2) Beck's
3 (4) Stella Artois
4 (3) Holsten Pils
5 (5) Miller Genuine Draft
6 (6) Nastro Azzuro
7 (10) Corona
8 (8) San Miguel
9 (7) Budvar
10 (-) Kronenbourg 1664
(AC Nielsen MAT September 2004, last year's places in brackets)
