Retailers Speak
FILED MARCH 9, 2010
In an informative panel discussion at the Beer Summit last week moderated by Bump Williams, Heather Heller from Circle K, Rick Turner of Pappas Restaurants, and Bob Gulley of am/pm, answered questions regarding the tough economy, selling craft beer, and working with distributors. We provide excerpts:.... Read More

Industry Debates Brands versus Style
FILED MARCH 8, 2010
Should you sell craft brands by style or by brand? That was one of the key questions in a lively -- sometimes even heated -- panel last week at the Beer Industry Summit, moderated by CM Profit Group's Tom Fox.... Read More

February Not So Bad for Imports
FILED MARCH 5, 2010
The beer industry was down 2.8% in IRI food-drug-c-store scans for the four weeks to February 21, better than the -5% IRI trend in January. Being down 2.8% is about in line with the quarterly trend, and not nearly as bad as reported brewery shipments and anecdotal distributor STRs for the period.... Read More

A-B Branch Warehouse, Delivery Reporting to Corp Logistics
FILED MARCH 4, 2010
"To deliver greater value to our customers and better leverage our logistics expertise, the warehouse and delivery operations at the Wholesale Operation Division (WODs) will begin reporting to Corporate Logistics, effective March 15th," writes A-B in a memo to logistics employees. ... Read More

Volumes Down, Margins Up for ABI in Q4
FILED MARCH 4, 2010
It's a new quarter but the same old story for our biggest brewer. AB InBev's organic volumes were down 0.7% for the year in 2009, while EBIDTA margins expanded by 2 points. In the fourth quarter global beer volumes were up 0.7%. ABI has proven itself to be, once again and even in tough times, a margin machine. La Maquina strikes again. But it has to be tough when all regions lost volume except Brazil..... Read More