Craft Brew News
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CRAFT BREW NEWS
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In latest move to pull back on Ballast Point, Constellation opted to shut down Ballast’s additional taproom location in Daleville, VA, reported local news channel, 10 News. Recall, after Constellation took second impairment charge on Ballast earlier this yr, it closed Ballast Point’s Temecula brewpub and Trade Street brewery (sour and barrel-aged facility), while “halt[ing]” any further expansion plans or any future “broad-based” brand intros (see Apr 16 issue). Decision to close “had nothing to do with the location’s profitability but rather the brand as a whole,” one employee told news channel. Taproom site officially closes on Sep 29 while the brewing facility next door will remain open. Keep in mind, Constellation has been using Ballast VA production brewery for innovation experiments such as Western Standard barrel-aged lager. Co plans to continue to use site as “innovation hub” to produce beers, FMBs, hard seltzers and more, and “may consider, down the road, leasing the facility to a third-party operator. Meanwhile, Ballast Point declines continue to steepen in natl scan data. Sales dropped 37% by $$, volume down 35% for latest 12 wks thru Aug 24 in Nielsen All Outlet data provided by Morgan Stanley’s Dara Mohsenian; $$ down 27%, volume…
Publishing Info
- Year 2019
- Volume 10
- Issue # 80
08/27/2019
Spot Checks: Cans Near 1/2 of Craft in Scans; Big Packs Pick Up Steam; Non-Alc Small But Fast
Cans continue to command craft growth. All craft can pkgs up 18% by $$ for 13 wks thru Aug 10 in broad Nielsen off-premise scans. Can sales up by over 20% for 26 wks, now over 40 share of craft $$ same period. (Note this data set slightly different from Nielsen channels we typically report on, including all outlet plus convenience, military and liquor plus.) Craft in cans edge ever closer to half of scan $$ and volume. Hit 45 share of $$ and closer to 46 share of cases for last 4 wks thru 8/10. Cans were just 30 share of the segment for 52 wks between Aug of 2017 and Aug of 2018. Contributing to can growth, at least in part: large pack sizes also gaining share of the segment in these Nielsen scans. Combo of 15, 18, 20, 24 and 30 packs (both cans and bottles) totaled 5.5 share of craft $$ for 13 wks to 8/10. About the same as craft 4-pks. And these larger pack sizes almost 8 share of craft volume. Vast majority of that remains in 15ers, over 2.2 mil cases and 6 share of segment volume for 13 wks. And they’re still…
Publishing Info
- Year 2019
- Volume 10
- Issue # 75
08/14/2019
Sierra Nevada Up, Will Go Beyond Beer; Lotsa Innovation; Hard Kombucha, Wild Little Thing (excerpt)
Sierra Nevada natl sales conference featured big departures for co coming in 2020, its 40th anniversary year. By far the biggest, for the first time in its history Sierra Nevada will sell a product beyond beer. Sierra Nevada will launch an as yet unnamed hard kombucha on draft nationally on Jan 1, with packaging coming in Mar. And it will not be branded as Sierra Nevada. Sierra will also launch its 2d brand in newly defined “Little Thing” brand franchise, following on heels of wildly successful Hazy Little Thing. So Wild Little Thing, a sessionable sour, will launch nationally in Mar. And Sierra will be taking Sufferfest, its first-ever acquisition, natl this fall, “blazing the trail in functional beer,” per founder Caitlin Landesberg. That’s 3 big outside-the-box initiatives for the iconic craft co. But it will also feed fire on Hazy Little Thing, natch, and attempt to augment its flagship Sierra brand family in several ways, including a 40th anniversary Hoppy Ale as a Spring Seasonal, a yr round Imperial IPA called Fantastic Haze that ships in Dec and more. Sierra Up Double Digits in Jul, Up 1% YTD Sierra Nevada volume getting back on track, a “significant turnaround,” noted…
Publishing Info
- Year 2019
- Volume 10
- Issue # 71
08/06/2019
Brighter July as Craft $$ +0.9% in Nielsen All Outlet Scans, But Still Losing Share to Seltzer
For 1st 4-wk period in quite some time, short-term craft trends better than yr-to-date in Nielsen off-premise scans. But $$ growth remains sluggish, volume still soft and seltzers keep gettin’ all the glory. Craft $$ up 0.9% for 4 wks thru 7/27 in broad all outlet data from Nielsen, a touch better than 0.7% gain YTD. Short-term volume also better but still negative, -0.1% for 4 wks vs -0.6% YTD. Despite much greater availability of large pack sizes in craft, often at lower (in some cases, much lower) price/case, average craft prices still up 35 cents/case, about 1% for 4 wks. Improvement in July driven by better trends for a couple of larger brands. Over a 9-pt spread between Sierra Nevada’s 4-wk and YTD volume trends, with cases up 6.9% for 4 wks but still off over 2% YTD. It’s been in the black for each 4-wk period since early June. New Belgium also keepin’ up strong off-prem trends, volume +8.4% for 4 wks, now up over 6% YTD. Sam Adams remains a drag on craft growth, but now off high single-digits last few periods vs double-digit declines earlier in yr. All 3 brand families were down or down more…
Publishing Info
- Year 2019
- Volume 10
- Issue # 68
Craft beer is a “different category than it was two or three years ago,” Boston Beer founder/chairman Jim Koch acknowledged on co’s Q2 earnings call yesterday afternoon, soon after reporting huge 17% shipments and depletions gain for the qtr (see yesterday’s issue). Craft is “more mature, more stable,” yet still sees “a thousand new entrants a year. So it’s a category where it’s really difficult to grow if you’re fully distributed and your brand’s been around a long time.” Like Sam Adams. So Boston execs not exactly surprised that Sam Adams continues to underperform in craft. Asked about the brand’s softness – total Sam franchise $$ down 13.3% yr-to-date thru Jul 13 in Nielsen all outlet data – Jim said its current status actually falls “pretty much in the ballpark of expectations.” However, it’s “gaining share in seasonals,” he said. As we noted yesterday, Sam Seasonal $$ +6% for 4 wks thru Jul 14 in IRI multi-outlet + convenience data, now down just 1.5% YTD. Yet total craft seasonals off double digits for both periods. Within craft in general, Jim expects, over “three to five years” that “retailers are going to be more selective about what they put on shelves”…
Publishing Info
- Year 2019
- Volume 10
- Issue # 66
Growth isn’t just going to “new” or “small,” but “local.” All of craft’s growth these days is local, according to off-premise data shared by Nielsen alc bev veep Danelle Kosmal during today’s BA Power Hour. “Local craft,” defined as any brand with 85+% of its volume in one state or retailer, is up 5% by $$ in Nielsen’s broadest all outlet (with convenience, liquor and military) data for 52 wks thru 6/22. Such brands represent just over 10 share of total Nielsen craft $$ (including big brewer brands), but gained almost 1 full share pt in the last yr. And they tend to sell for about $5 more per six pack, with an avg price of $14.34/6-pk compared to craft avg of $9.26. Then too, pull “Local” out of craft and the rest of the segment is down 1.7%. So perhaps no surprise that “local” is important for most craft consumers. A “locally made” craft beer plays an important role in purchasing decisions for 59% of regular craft drinkers and 64% of weekly craft drinkers, according to poll results shared by Nielsen’s Caitlyn Battaglia. So “local” tracks within a point of interest in “Independent” for both casual and core craft…
Publishing Info
- Year 2019
- Volume 10
- Issue # 63
More...
A number of notable in-state declines offset strong growth from fast movers in California in 2018. Such is craft these days, tho. In total, CA brewers shipped about 3 mil bbls of craft beer in the state last yr, we estimate based on state reports. That’s in the neighborhood of 70% of the craft beer produced by CA brewers and up about 3.4%, 100K bbls over our 2017 estimate. As with national trends, all of that growth came from the smallest players. We track the 30 largest brewers, based on in-state shipments, all over 15K bbls in-state, in the table below. While it includes plenty of strong growth, collectively these 30 brewers were down less than 1% from 2017 to 2018. So all other Calif brewers, some 800-850 of ’em, collectively grew about 17% last yr. Those smaller brewers still totaled less than 800K bbls tho and the vast majority of them produced and shipped just a few hundred bbls or less (see below for more). …
Publishing Info
- Year 2019
- Volume 10
- Issue # 61
It’s only gonna get worse before it gets any better for Ballast Point, it seems, following co’s decision to close locations, “halt” any “broad-based” new brand launches and brewpubs a couple mos ago (see Apr 16 issue). Ballast Point declines steepened to $$ down 38%, volume down 36% for latest 4 wks thru Jun 15 in Nielsen All Outlet data cited by Morgan Stanley’s Dara Mohsenian. $$ sales now down down 34% for 12 wks and -21% for latest 52 wks. That’s as avg price/case declines slowed to down 3% for 4 wks vs -5% for 12 wks and -8% for 52 wks, following cos decision to restructure pricing via Discovery Series, Sculpins and Specialty brews. Ballast declines continue to have little-to-no effect on Constellation Beer Brand Divisions’ overall results. Total Constellation beer sales-to-retailers grew 6.6% in Mar-May qtr, with shipments up 4.2 mil cases, 5.4%, and revs up $100 mil, 7.4%, to nearly $1.5 bil for fiscal Q2, co reported earlier today.
Publishing Info
- Year 2019
- Volume 10
- Issue # 58
BrewDog USA is cruisin’ in 2019 even amid “toughest environment I have seen in 23 years of selling craft beer,” Chief Rev Officer Adam Lambert shared in email update to his network (as he used to frequently do back in his Dogfish days). BrewDog depletions are up 114% YTD thru May, following co’s best month yet in May with 51K CEs. Recall, BrewDog USA initially expected to hit 25K bbls and $18+ mil in revs last yr, yet co ended up surpassing 36K bbls in 2018, according to Brewers Assn stats (unclear if any contract volume included in BA number). Over Half of Biz in OH; Mid-Atlantic Growin’ Most; MD with Bond and Buck Dist Notably, 56% of its volume is in OH, growing 90% YTD. Midwest (IN, IL, MI) and Mid-Atlantic divisions are gaining ground, up 132% and 182% respectively, now representing 18% and 22% of total BrewDog biz. Then too, BrewDog added north central WV earlier this yr, as well as 8 new wholesalers in existing territories, DC mkt with Reyes’ Premium Bev in Mid-May, and this week is rolling out MD with Bond and Buck Dist, bringing total footprint to 11 states + DC total (OH, IN,…
Publishing Info
- Year 2019
- Volume 10
- Issue # 55
After solidifying itself among top MO brewers with a sizable presence in hometown, St Louis-based Urban Chestnut Brewing is moving at strong yet steady pace in 2019 and beyond while also beginning to seek potential oppys in new spaces, co-founder David Wolfe told CBN during visit earlier this week. Recall, Urban Chestnut opened in 2011 by ex-AB exec David Wolfe and brewer Florian Kuplent, and co quickly grew to regional status (15K bbls or higher) by 2015. Growth since settled down and last year slowed to mid-single-digits, up 1K bbls to 22K bbls in 2018, according to Brewers Assn stats. But this year co expects to pick up pace and reach 25K bbls, David shared. Urban Chestnut has ample room to grow if needed, after expanding into 70K sq-ft production facility and bier hall location in 2014, set up to be its home for the future, David explained. Currently capacity is around 30K bbls/yr with ample space for new tanks and equipment, ultimately capable of reaching upwards of 80K bbls/yr. Even as canned packages have taken off and pulling away as its leading package, co still operating 40 cpm canning line that’s proven to be a notable “pinch point” in…
Publishing Info
- Year 2019
- Volume 10
- Issue # 54
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