Bar beverage sales mix statistics show a divided market: beer remained Canada’s largest alcohol category by sales in 2024/2025, while on-premise data from 2024 pointed to strong growth in beyond-beer drinks and RTD cocktails. The figures below separate national and provincial retail benchmarks from U.S. on-premise and restaurant-operator data.
Table of contents
- National category mix
- Provincial differences
- Sales dollars and volume
- Beer and packaged beverages
- Spirits, wine and beyond beer
- Menu and beverage-channel signals
National category mix
Statistics Canada reported the following shares of total Canadian alcohol sales for the April 1, 2024, to March 31, 2025, period. These are national retail alcohol-sales benchmarks, not a bar-only point-of-sale sample.
| Category | Share of alcohol sales | Sales value |
|---|---|---|
| Beer | 35.1% | $9.1 billion |
| Wine | 29.7% | $7.7 billion |
| Spirits | 25.8% | $6.7 billion |
| Ciders and coolers | 9.3% | $2.4 billion |
Beer therefore represented 35.1% of the national mix, followed by wine at 29.7% and spirits at 25.8%. Ciders and coolers accounted for 9.3%. The same source recorded $9.1 billion in Canadian beer sales, $7.7 billion in wine sales, $6.7 billion in spirits sales and $2.4 billion in cider and cooler sales. Statistics Canada, The Daily — Control and sale of alcoholic beverages and cannabis, April 1, 2024 to March 31, 2025.
For a bar manager, this national split is a broad reference point for category coverage. It does not predict the sales mix of a particular room, concept or market. It does establish that beer, wine and spirits each represent substantial national categories, while cider and cooler products form a smaller but distinct share.
Provincial differences
The national percentage can conceal major geographic differences. Statistics Canada’s provincial and territorial table reported these 2024/2025 mixes:
| Jurisdiction | Beer | Wine | Spirits | Ciders, coolers and other refreshment beverages |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Quebec | 37.4% | 42.7% | 17.5% | 2.4% |
| British Columbia | 28.3% | 27.3% | 30.8% | 13.6% |
| Northwest Territories | 31.3% | 13.3% | 44.2% | 11.2% |
Quebec’s largest reported category was wine at 42.7%, with beer at 37.4%, spirits at 17.5% and ciders, coolers and other refreshment beverages at 2.4%. British Columbia showed a more even mix across beer at 28.3%, wine at 27.3% and spirits at 30.8%; its refreshment-beverage share was 13.6%.
The Northwest Territories reported a spirits-led mix: spirits were 44.2%, beer 31.3%, ciders, coolers and other refreshment beverages 11.2%, and wine 13.3%. These comparisons are useful when reviewing a market or deciding how much category breadth a menu needs, but they remain alcohol-sales benchmarks across each jurisdiction rather than measurements of individual bars. Statistics Canada, Market share by alcoholic beverage type, provinces and territories, 2024/2025.
Sales dollars and volume
The national figures also show a difference between category value and physical volume. Total Canadian alcohol volume fell 3.0% to 2,898 million litres in 2024/2025. Beer volume fell 3.8% to 1,876 million litres and declined for the ninth consecutive year.
Wine volume totaled 460 million litres. Wine sales fell 2.2% in value, while imported Canadian wine sales fell 3.9%. Domestic Canadian wine sales increased 1.9% to $2.3 billion. The combination indicates that wine’s national sales position should be read alongside separate domestic and imported performance rather than as one uniform trend.
Canadian spirits volume fell 4.4% to 177 million litres. Ciders and coolers moved in the opposite direction on volume: volume increased 2.2% to 385 million litres, and sales increased 4.8% in value. Statistics Canada, The Daily — Control and sale of alcoholic beverages and cannabis, April 1, 2024 to March 31, 2025.
For beverage planning, these measures answer different questions. Sales share describes the value mix; litres describe physical movement; and year-over-year changes describe direction for the stated period. None of these national measures is a direct estimate of pour mix, average check or margin at a bar.
Beer and packaged beverages
BeerBoard’s 2024 U.S. on-premise dataset covered more than $1 billion in alcohol sales and represented 2 billion ounces poured. Within that dataset, draft and packaged beer ounces fell 6% versus 2023, and packaged products fell 6% in total units served.
The published packaged-volume split was 48% domestic packaged products, 35% imported packaged products, 9% craft packaged products and 8% beyond-beer products. BeerBoard also reported that beyond-beer packaged volume share increased 13.5%. Lager and light lager were the top two draft and packaged beer styles.
These figures describe U.S. on-premise activity, so they should not be blended with the Canadian national retail percentages above. They can still help frame a bar’s internal review: packaged beer is not one homogeneous line, and beyond-beer products can occupy a measurable share inside a beer-oriented channel. BeerBoard, Beyond Beer Leads On-Premise Alcohol Growth in 2024.
The packaged data also provides a practical comparison for menu and cooler reviews. Domestic products led the reported packaged-volume mix at 48%, while imports were 35%, craft was 9% and beyond beer was 8%. Because the source reports volume share rather than sales dollars, the percentages should be used as a distribution signal, not as a revenue or profit ranking.
Spirits, wine and beyond beer
BeerBoard reported that RTD cocktails grew 121.5% over 2023 in its 2024 U.S. on-premise dataset. Its broader beyond-beer rate of sale increased 69% versus 2023. Those are year-over-year changes in the source’s on-premise measures, not forecasts.
Within spirits volume, whiskey held 24%, tequila held 21.5% and vodka held 20%. Whiskey volume declined 6.7%, while tequila volume increased 6.3%. The category shares and changes should be read together: a large existing share does not necessarily mean positive current growth, and a growing category can still be smaller in absolute mix.
Wine volume in the same dataset was led by white wine at 50%, followed by red wine at 32%. BeerBoard also reported concentration among leading draft brands: the top four generated about 2.5 times the sales of the next eleven brands.
Together, these figures identify several separate mix questions for a bar: whether spirits sales are concentrated in whiskey, tequila or vodka; whether wine demand is weighted toward white or red; how quickly RTD cocktails are changing; and whether draft-brand sales are concentrated. They do not provide a margin, price or guest-count estimate. BeerBoard, Beyond Beer Leads On-Premise Alcohol Growth in 2024.
Menu and beverage-channel signals
The National Restaurant Association reported in 2024 that 70% of beer, wine or cocktail consumers said alcohol availability made them more likely to choose a restaurant. Among fullservice alcohol-serving operators, 54% planned mixed cocktails, 51% planned more beer and 48% planned more wine.
The same source reported that about 50% of fullservice alcohol-selling restaurants included alcohol in delivery orders. Where permitted, 96% of those restaurants continued delivery. Among restaurants serving alcohol to go, 93% offered pickup, 25% used third-party delivery and 10% used their own staff for delivery.
Reported alcohol-to-go availability differed by beverage: beer was available from 83% of the restaurants in the survey, bottled wine from 65% and cocktails from about 60%. These figures describe surveyed restaurant operators or consumers, not a single bar chain, and they do not establish sales mix.
For a bar-management dashboard, the figures support a clean separation between category mix and channel mix. Category mix can track beer, wine, spirits, cider, coolers, RTDs and non-alcoholic products by sales dollars and units. Channel mix can separately track in-room, pickup and delivery activity. The National Restaurant Association results suggest why those channels may be worth monitoring, while the Statistics Canada and BeerBoard figures provide external category context. National Restaurant Association, Beverages are key to ringing up bigger sales.
When comparing a venue’s own numbers with these benchmarks, keep the geography, period and unit visible. The Canadian benchmark covers April 1, 2024, to March 31, 2025; BeerBoard’s on-premise measures cover 2024 and compare with 2023; and the National Restaurant Association figures are 2024 survey findings. That labeling prevents retail sales shares, poured ounces, rate-of-sale changes and operator plans from being treated as interchangeable measures.