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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05/31/2019
Legislative Notes: Maine Franchise/Self-Dist Bill Brings More Compromise; CT Off-Prem Sales
Inter-tier compromise continues to be clearest trend in state-level legislative actions in 2019. Importantly, franchise law a frequent (and perhaps surprising) subject of compromises between small brewer and distributor advocates. Both groups support bill intro’d in Maine last week, raising self-distribution volume cap and creating franchise law carve out for small suppliers, according to Portland Press Herald report last night. Recall, discussions over this issue in ME noted during CBC seminar by atty Marc Sorini (see April 10) as example of growing number of states where parties traditionally not aligned figuring out the give and take needed to get on same page. That page hit Maine legislature about 10 days ago, currently still in committee. But backing by key stakeholders could mean smooth sailing, if process tracks results of compromise elsewhere.The deets: proposal would raise current volume cap on “small brewery” license in state to 30K bbls, under which breweries can self distribute. Same volume threshold would apply to state franchise law, allowing brewers from in- and out-of-state to give 30 days to move from one distrib to another (or to self distributing). Brewer has to represent less than 3% of distrib volume over last 12 mos. Distrib gets FMV,…
Publishing Info
- Year 2019
- Volume 10
- Issue # 51
Yesterday’s blockbuster deal announcement that Boston Beer will acquire Dogfish Head for combo cash/stock deal valued at $300 mil turned everyone’s heads. Even those already paying close attention to what Dogfish was up to with proposed legislation in Delaware. It’s largest craft player to sell since Lagunitas sold remaining half of its biz to Heineken in 2017. But largest new tie-up since Ballast Point sale to Constellation in 2015. Yet a strange, coincidence: both Dogfish and Ballast essentially the same size when these transactions announced. Dogfish Head just shy of 275K bbls last yr. Ballast at 277K bbls in 2015. Ballast grew by almost 100K bbls in 2016, but then over next two years lost all of those bbls. Declined to essentially exact same volume as Dogfish Head last yr, 275K bbls. Fact that both of these deals also involve public cos require additional financial disclosures, which could broaden their impacts. Simply: while terms of other deals more private, details available here provide much clearer measuring stick for the industry, against which many others seeing how they stack up. In that respect, will this deal “reframe craft beer M&A”? That’s intriguing question posed by Consumer Edge’s Brett Cooper in extensive…
Publishing Info
- Year 2019
- Volume 10
- Issue # 45
Perhaps now more than ever, in this age of constant innovation and intense competition, brewers have to find their “brewery religion” in order to determine “what you’re going to do and what you’re not going to do….Our religion as brewers is going to be challenged by all sorts of things” and it’s “different” for everyone, stated Brooklyn Brewery brewmaster Garrett Oliver on panel of craft brewers for Brewers of PA’s annual Meeting of the Malts event. As BA’s Bart Watson called upon craft brewers to seek new consumers, Garrett, along with Yuengling chief admin officer and 6th gen family member Wendy Yuengling, 21st Amendment brewmaster/co-founder Shaun O’Sullivan, Troegs brewmaster/co-founder John Trogner, and Rhinegeist co-founder/vp of sales & marketing Bryant Goulding each expressed different ways their breweries are experimenting and expanding within this context. Brooklyn Bel Air Sour Could Be Brooklyn’s #2 Brand by Year-End; 51% of Brooklyn Sold Outside US Brooklyn Brewery’s Bel Air sour ale has quickly become #2 sour beer sold in the country and on track to become #2 best-selling beer for co, possibly by this year, Garrett shared. Recall, co launched Bel Air year round just last yr. Bel Air can be more suited for cocktail…
Publishing Info
- Year 2019
- Volume 10
- Issue # 40
Boston Beer no longer needs Sam Adams to grow to put up strong results. That fact was already abundantly clear thru 2018. But Boston’s first qtr results and exec commentary about them crystallized and confirmed it. “Sam Adams will always be at the heart and soul of the company,” chairman Jim Koch reiterated during Wednesday earnings call. But since co “evolved,” now over half hard tea, cider and seltzer, we estimate, co can “deliver nice double-digit growth without Sam Adams contributing to it.” That gives co a “big advantage over the rest of the craft category” too, Jim shared. For most craft cos, “they’ve only got one bet,” he said. “Their stool is only on one leg. And we’ve got four.” Half a Mil Bbls of Seltzer Oppy in 2019? One leg, in particular, has gotten significantly stronger in last yr. Boston’s Truly Spiked and Sparkling hard seltzer brand is clear #2 in the sub-segment, behind Mike’s Hard Lemonade Co’s White Claw brand. Boston’s spending lots to keep that position, incurring increased production costs, for example (see yesterday’s issue of sibling-pub Insights Express). That’s in part because Truly specifically and seltzers more broadly all growing faster than Boston expected. White…
Publishing Info
- Year 2019
- Volume 10
- Issue # 35
04/16/2019
Ballast Closes 2 Locations; “Halt” Any “Broad-Based” New Brand Launches and Pubs; Layoffs & More
The unraveling of Ballast Point, and Constellation’s craft portfolio, took another tuff turn, as co made several moves to “adapt” cost structure amid “declining sales volume,” Constellation told Ballast employees. Constellation will close its Temecula brewpub and Trade Street brewery (sour and barrel-aged facility located next to Miramar brewery) and “pause plans” for any new Ballast brewpubs. It also will “halt” future “broad-based” brand intros. As part of this, Constellation will “more fully integrate” Craft & Specialty unit with larger Constellation Beer Brands Division unit, with exception of craft home mkts – SoCal (Ballast), FL (Funky Buddha) and TX (Four Corners). Those will continue to have dedicated sales support. Altogether, these decisions will result in another round of layoffs, co acknowledges. This comes shortly after Constellation took a 2nd impairment charge on Ballast Point, bringing total “impairment” charges to near $200 mil since its $1-bil purchase of Ballast. Plus, co sold off its Scripps Ranch facility to upstart hard kombucha co, JuneShine, earlier this yr. While “necessary” to “scale down” costs, such decisions “never easy.” Co hopes to “quickly” make adjustments and work with “impacted employees” to help them get to other oppys either inside or outside co.
Publishing Info
- Year 2019
- Volume 10
- Issue # 35
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
More...
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
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★ANNOUNCING★
The 2019 Beer Insights Seminar will be held in New York City, on Sunday evening, November 17th to Monday, November 18th at Convene.