Heineken warned British pubs that GLP-1 drugs could hurt beer sales

American households that include a user of GLP-1 weight-loss drugs spent about 13.5% less per month on beer than households without a user after two years of tracking, according to data from the market measurement firm Circana, as Heineken has started warning British pubs and bars that the same trend could hurt beer sales.

Reuters reported Friday that it had obtained a Heineken presentation sent this month to hospitality customers in Britain. In that document, the Dutch brewer said the growing use of GLP-1 drugs such as Ozempic and Wegovy could weaken sales of beer and cider because users may feel full sooner, drink less, and favor smaller servings. The company advised venues to promote half-pints, expand low- and no-alcohol options, and pair drinks with small dishes if they want to limit the risk of lower traffic and lower spending.

Heineken said in a statement to Reuters that the presentation was part of its regular work with British hospitality businesses to explain how consumer behavior is changing. The company said it is seeing some shifts in drinking habits among GLP-1 users and will continue to watch those patterns in 2027. It added that users are not necessarily giving up alcohol entirely, but are more often choosing smaller serves, lower-alcohol drinks, and more premium products.

The warning matters because Heineken is one of the largest beer companies in the world and has a broad stake in Britain’s pub trade. According to the annual global ranking compiled by the German hop specialist BarthHaas, Heineken was the world’s second-largest brewer by volume in 2025, with 235.65 million hectoliters sold, down 2.1% from a year earlier. The company also owns more than 2,000 pubs in Britain, where it has described the market as a relative bright spot in Europe, its biggest region by revenue.

Heineken’s concern comes at a difficult time for alcohol makers. Beer, wine, and spirits companies have been dealing with weaker demand in several major markets as consumers cut back for health and budget reasons. The spread of GLP-1 drugs adds another pressure point because the medications are already reshaping spending across food, apparel, and consumer goods. A JPMorgan study cited by Reuters estimated that about 10 million people in the United States used drugs such as Ozempic and Wegovy last year.

The Circana figures offer one of the clearest spending signals so far. The firm tracked U.S. households from 2024 to 2026 and found that, after two years on the drugs, households with a GLP-1 user spent about 7% less per month on alcohol overall than households without one. Beer showed a steeper decline than total alcohol spending, falling 13.5%, or 6.5 percentage points more than the overall category. The tracking covered alcohol bought for use at home as well as outside the home.

Those figures should be read with caution. The Circana data are observational and do not prove that GLP-1 drugs alone caused the drop in alcohol purchases. The underlying database is not public, and the Heineken presentation reviewed by Reuters is also not public. The U.S. household spending data and the British pub market figures refer to different countries and different parts of the alcohol business, so they should not be added together or treated as a single measure of impact.

In Britain, beer remains a large business in pubs, bars, and restaurants, and alcohol-free products are still a small part of that market. A Heineken UK report said beer generated nearly £14 billion in sales in those venues in the year ended February 2026. Less than £300 million came from low- or no-alcohol beer, which is roughly 2% of the beer value in that channel using rounded figures. That gap helps explain why Heineken is telling operators to adjust early if more customers begin ordering smaller formats or skipping alcohol.

Other drinks companies have been more cautious in public. Diageo and Carlsberg have told investors that any effect from GLP-1 drugs should be manageable even if use continues to spread. Carlsberg also told Reuters that the evidence available so far does not support the view that the drugs are a decisive driver of beer consumption trends. Anheuser-Busch InBev declined to comment to Reuters.

Even so, more signals are emerging from researchers and market surveys. Circana, NIQ, and the U.K.-based hospitality research company KAM have all reported signs that GLP-1 users are reducing alcohol consumption in Europe and Britain. Reuters also interviewed 11 GLP-1 users, and 10 of them said they had cut back on drinking, sometimes sharply, because alcohol made them feel unwell or because they simply no longer wanted it.

Scientists are also studying whether the drugs may affect cravings in ways that go beyond appetite suppression. Joseph Schacht, a professor at the University of Colorado Anschutz, led a randomized controlled trial on the effect of GLP-1 treatment in people with alcohol use disorder. He told Reuters that trials have consistently shown lower cravings and lower consumption in that group. That research does not mean the same effect will apply in the same way to the wider population, but it has added to industry concern that the medications could reduce demand for alcohol as their use expands.