Craft Brew News
Beer Marketer's INSIGHTS brings you a new e-letter to cover the hottest segment in the beer biz, craft, in-depth, as it deserves:
CRAFT BREW NEWS
As a subscriber, you get breaking news and much more: numbers, insights, analysis, people, events and perspectives that only BMI can provide. All brought to you in a lively, easy-to-read style. Craft Brew News brings you the knowledge you need to compete effectively in this dynamic segment.
You get accurate, reliable and relevant info to help you make key business decisions: Competitive trends, coverage of key events, interviews with key players, profiles, media coverage and much more. Craft Brew News also includes out-of-the-box features and items only found in the singular world of craft beer, from brand collaborations to unique events and promotions.
Craft Brew News is an e-letter published at least once a week, 60+ times a year, including flashes whenever need-to-know info breaks. CBN will also include occasional forays into the exciting world of specialty imports as well as big brewer efforts to compete in the craft arena. This publication synthesizes what you need to know about craft, helping you avoid information overload, while giving you data and insights you need to maximize your business opportunities.
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12/28/2018
OH Craft Volume Up 1% YTD in IRI; Down 1% and Losing Share for 13 Wks; Top Cities & Brands (excerpt)
Ohio craft segment (as defined by IRI) still eking out growth for the year, but it’s declining and losing share more recently in scans, sneak peek at OH IRI data depicts. OH craft volume grew 0.8% YTD thru Dec 2, as total beer volume flat in OH IRI multi-outlet + convenience channels. So craft gained just 0.06 share to 8.4 of total OH beer volume thru most of 2018. And for latest 13 wks, craft declined 0.8% and lost slight share for period, as total beer off just 0.4%. (Recall, craft volume similarly up 1.2% YTD nationally, maintained just 0.6% growth for latest 12 wks.) FMBs and Superpremium snagged most growth in OH MULC, up 15% and 18.5% respectively. Each grabbed additional 0.8-0.9 share. Imports grew more modest 4% and +0.3 share. Premium brews are a bit healthier in OH scans (-2.5%) while subpremiums a bit softer (-3.3%) vs natl trends. Craft a bit softer yet in more developed OH foodstores: down 0.3% YTD and -1.2% for 13 wks thru Dec 2. It shed 0.2 share to 19 of foodstore beer volume YTD, -0.3 share for 13 wks. And most major cities declining at steeper rates than statewide: Cleveland craft…
Publishing Info
- Year 2018
- Volume 9
- Issue # 114
12/18/2018
Slower Burns Shine Brighter: Four Consistent Growers Maintain Health in Tuffer 2018 (excerpt)
Dependable, consistent growth has not been easy to come by for the country’s top craft brands over the last few years and it’s gotten that much tougher in 2018. Closing in on the end of the year, more than half of the 30 largest craft brands by $$ in IRI off-premise data are declining yr-to-date thru Dec 2. Two more are brand new. Of the 11 growing brands with more than 11 months of sales data behind ’em, four are up single digits this yr and don’t epitomize consistent long-term growth: an IPA that quickly took over as a new flagship brand but slowed considerably this yr, a catch-all “brand” that isn’t one brand but many and two top seasonals that took wild rides up and down over last few yrs. Seven others are up double digits so far this yr, but 3 are relatively new to growing at this kind of scale. There’s New Belgium Voodoo Ranger Imperial IPA, a reboot of what was once Rampant that’s just a year-and-change old. Two others are newly-anointed, national lead horses in larger stables of brands, each afforded more focus and enough capacity to be unbridled and sold in many more markets:…
Publishing Info
- Year 2018
- Volume 9
- Issue # 112
A number of the country’s biggest cities have caught up to smaller metro areas with higher brewery counts, analysis shared this wk by Brewers Assn economist Bart Watson shows. Despite faster growth of brewery counts in urban areas since 2013, rural areas still have more breweries per capita, on average, Bart shares in post focused on this rural/urban split. Impressively, “urban clusters with 2,500 to 10,000 people actually have the most breweries per capita,” compared to other areas organized by population size, he wrote after looking at 2010 Census Bureau stats and brewery locations based on zip codes. “Those areas have 7.6% of the breweries in the country, despite representing only 3.5% of the US population,” Bart wrote. Indeed, he underscores that population remains a far weaker predictor of how many breweries per capita will be in a given city than what state that city is in. That point underscored by map embedded in Bart’s post, which shows brewery count by metropolitan area, compared to US Census Bureau’s ranking of biggest metro areas by estimated 2017 resident population. Eight US metro areas, which often include multiple cities, are now home to over 100 breweries, Bart’s map shows. But just 4…
Publishing Info
- Year 2018
- Volume 9
- Issue # 110
12/04/2018
Seizing Oppys Seen in Lower Hudson Valley Beer Scene, Industrial Arts Starts Big Expansion (excerpt)
Ahead of plan and propelled by popular hazy New England-style IPA Wrench, New York’s Industrial Arts Brewing never stopped expanding and will now turn to nearby Beacon to build a second site and scale up further. Just over 2 yrs in biz, IA has plans to be anchor tenant of new 150K sq-ft building on 10 acres, using just over a third of that space to build a production facility with plenty of room for many more years, founder Jeff O’Neil explained to Craft Brew News. But first phase of Beacon project will be a taproom/retail location, expected to open next yr, followed by large event space and broader production by 2020. 5+ Yrs Ahead of Schedule: 9,500 Bbls in 2018, Including Three’s Volume, Half Wrench But how’d the 2-yr old co get to place where it’s even considering these moves? In a word: Wrench. The co’s NE IPA is already “two-thirds of what we sell of our own,” Jeff told CBN, and “exactly half of our mix this year.” It wasn’t part of the co’s initial offerings when it opened brewery in Rockland County just northwest of NYC. Recall, Industrial Arts’ original site was never the typical startup brewery,…
Publishing Info
- Year 2018
- Volume 9
- Issue # 108
Wiseacre sold “minority” stake to Memphis-based [financial firm/single-family office], Kemmons Wilson Companies, as part of upcoming project for eventual 100K bbls/yr brewery in Downtown Memphis (see last issue), co-founder Kellan Bartosch confirmed with CBN. Kellan and his brother/brewmaster/co-founder Davin remain majority owners, primary decision makers, and in charge of “day-to-day” operations, he assured. While co met with other potential suitors as well, locally-based Kemmons Wilson Cos had “a lot of mutual friends,” “were fans of what we did” and “realized we had an opportunity to grow.” Figure Out Potential Ceiling and Work Backwards; “Optimistic” and “Reasonable” After nearly maxing out capacity just a few yrs after opening, Wiseacre had to ask itself the “tough question”: “What is your ceiling?” and work backwards. Co realized it wasn’t trying to be the next 1 mil-bbl, or even 300K-bbl brewer, but a 100K bbls/yr brewery feels within reach, Kellan and co concluded. Then co hadda “figure out what makes sense” in terms of equipment and financing. “You want to be optimistic and reasonable,” particularly in this next phase of increased competition in craft. Co consciously avoided scenario of building “another small brewery” that it could potentially grow out of again in short order,…
Publishing Info
- Year 2018
- Volume 9
- Issue # 107
11/21/2018
The Rise and Fall of Mix-A-Six: Back to Pre-2013, 0.3 Share of Beer $$ in Grocery and Still Down
Once upon a time, as craft was the it-segment across all off-premise alc bev categories, the magical mix-a-six pack offered that pesky promiscuous craft consumer the perfect chance to sample to his little heart’s content. But as craft slowed, grocery chains scrutinized their shelves, many reducing space for the complex pack if not cutting it altogether, resulting in notable decline. While not a perfect metric for mix-a-six packs, the IRI-tracked “Assorted” beer brand/vendor/segment provides a window into this trip from seemingly essential amenity for variety-seeking beer drinkers to frequently derided graveyard of dusty bottles. A way, way back in 2013, IRI’s “Assorted” beer, tracked alongside top-25 beer vendors, grew $$ sales 41.5% in grocery stores, hitting 0.33 share of total beer $$. Grocery store consumers spent more on assorted packs at near $10/6-pk than they did on Stone, Bell’s, Great Lakes or Dogfish Head beer, according to IRI data YTD thru 12/29/13. At that time, Assorted was the equivalent of the 5th largest craft brand, behind Sam Adams Seasonal, Sierra Pale, Fat Tire, Boston Lager and Sam Variety, bigger than Torpedo. It kept gaining thru 2014, +13% by $$ to 0.35 share of beer sold in grocery stores YTD thru…
Publishing Info
- Year 2018
- Volume 9
- Issue # 105
More...
More color and a lot more confidence included in full economic impact report on San Diego County craft brewers, released this week by CSU San Marcos and San Diego Brewers Guild. Recall, 130+ county craft brewers (excluding those acquired by larger brewers) contributed total of $1.1 bil in economic output last yr on $807 mil in gross revs and 1.1 mil bbls of beer produced (see Oct 12 issue). By May 1 of this yr, 148 brewing cos operated 178 brewing locations in SD County, report notes. That’s about 1/6 of the 900 breweries or so across Calif (during similar period). And TTB counted 1100 active brewery licenses in the state by end of 2017, report notes, up from less than 500 as recently as 2012. The 1.1 mil bbls produced by county craft brewers represented a little over 1/3 of the 3.29 mil bbls produced by all Calif craft brewers, according to report (again, not including about 1.5 mil bbls report estimates was produced in state at acquired brewers Lagunitas, Ballast Point, Golden Road, Saint Archer & 10 Barrel, which has brewpub in SD). Calif craft total basically flat, down about 10K bbls or 0.3% in 2017, but down…
Publishing Info
- Year 2018
- Volume 9
- Issue # 103
Beer marketers have to step up their game, speakers repeated throughout the day at our Beer Insights Seminar on Monday. Somehow the consensus put a finer point to persistent, yet fuzzier concerns about “category health” and the beer industry’s difficulty growing overall volume. Lotsa questions raised during this week’s proceedings, but here’s another: how can, how will craft participate in fixing beer’s marketing problem? Craft’s biggest player shares same problem with the biggest players in US beer: its flagship beers are losing volume. And comments about improved marketing at the Seminar culminated in those from Boston Beer chairman Jim Koch (see yesterday’s issue). Jim, AB prexy Michel Doukeris and MC’s Pete Marino all shared hope that better mktg would help struggling Sam Adams, Bud and Miller/Coors brand families, respectively. In general, marketers “haven’t made beer as special as it could or should be,” Pete acknowledged. So the beer biz needs to “bring a little bit of magic back to beer.” What magic does craft have left up its sleeves? Individual companies and brands aren’t alone in these considerations. Meetings continue among trade assn leaders and many industry members, hoping to address overarching category concerns. But don’t hold your breath waiting…
Publishing Info
- Year 2018
- Volume 9
- Issue # 101
11/02/2018
Craft Holds On to 0.1% YTD Volume Gain, Following Itty Bitty 4-Wk “Improvement” in Nielsen
Craft goes up against some easier comps thru the rest of 2018 in Nielsen all-outlet + c-store off-premise data. Recall, last yr the segment grew volume low-mid single digits thru the summer and early fall before spending most of the rest of 2017 flat-to-down in this data set. And that’s the good news. The bad news is that craft doesn’t have much momentum heading into that easier set of comps. Craft cases declined 1.9% for 4 wks thru Oct 20 in Nielsen scans. That’s better than for the 4 wks thru 10/13, but only by a tenth of a pt. Yr-to-date, craft volume still positive, but only by a tenth of a pt, +0.1%. Craft $$ down 1% for 4 wks, +1% YTD as avg price/case up 34 cents to $37.19. A key 2017 shift that sets up the segment for these easier late-2018 comps is revealed by analyzing the broad-brush dynamics in 4-wk top craft brand family trends across the back-half of each year. As Sept rolled on last yr, the combo of Blue Moon, Leinenkugel Shandies and Shock Top brand families slowed and, come Oct, slipped into decline, as the below charts show. As a group, those 3…
Publishing Info
- Year 2018
- Volume 9
- Issue # 99
10/23/2018
OR Brewery Closure Rate “Barely Budged,” 2-4% for Yrs, “Significantly Lower” than All Firms Avg
The number of breweries in Oregon has quadrupled in the last 15 yrs, but despite tougher competition and slowing overall sales, closures haven’t yet spiked in the state, according to recent post from OR’s Office of Economic Analysis. The brewery closure rate in the state has “barely budged” and hovered in the 2-4% range since 2008. Last yr, 6 breweries in OR closed, putting rate at just below 3%. At same time, the “All Firm Closure Rate” was more than double that, at just over 7%, the OR OEA estimates, which is down from about 10% in 2009, the peak of the Great Recession, but on par with last 6 yrs or so. “Slower growth can strain business finances, eventually leading to more closures or failures,” economist Josh Lehner wrote in post. But that hasn’t happened in OR. Yet? After massive uptick in the number of breweries, “we should see more closures given there are so many more potential places to run into issues – be they low sales, high costs, personal problems, or the like.” That may still be to come. But even with volume declines, “that does not mean the industry overall is unhealthy,” Josh argues. Say what?!?…
Publishing Info
- Year 2018
- Volume 9
- Issue # 95
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The 2019 Beer Insights Seminar will be held in New York City, on Sunday evening, November 17th to Monday, November 18th at Convene.