Dear Client: After Constellation’s recent quarterly results and recent scan data showing a marginal weakening of growth trends for powerhouse brand Modelo Especial, the latest narrative at the Beer Summit and elsewhere focused on more transitory headwinds rather than structural ones.  Nik Modi of RBC Capital Markets writes to investors that “most distributors/retailers had a … Continue reading “Are Modelo’s Softening Trends Transitory?”

Dear Client: A fireside chat with Beam Suntory exec, Greg Hughes, at the WSD Summit this week, provided a fascinating display of how worlds are colliding in bev alc. Note, Greg has been the North America president at Beam Suntory since 2018, and was recently promoted to a global role, now serving as chief growth … Continue reading “Beam Suntory Exec on their “Convenient Collision” with Boston Beer”

Dear Client: Reyes is serious about its recent big entry into spirits distribution, which it will kick off with the Sazerac portfolio in California, Hawaii and parts of Texas.  Chief Tom Day has just announced a key addition to the company’s Executive Leadership Team: A head of spirits.  “Starting January 17, 2023, Kyle Dean will … Continue reading “Reyes Hires Breakthru Vet as Market President of Spirits”

Dear Client: In a development that could have far-reaching implications for the beer industry and national chains, the FTC has opened a probe against PepsiCo and the Coca-Cola Company alleging pricing tactics that could run up against a rarely-used federal law.   The law in question is called the Robinson-Patman Act, sources told Politico, and it … Continue reading “FTC Probes Pepsi and Coke’s Pricing Tactics”

Dear Client: At this week’s Beer Industry Summit our own Jenn Litz-Kirk (who was recently promoted to Director of Content, as Harry announced during the show) sat down with Benoit Garbe, Chief Marketing Officer of Anheuser-Busch. Coming up on a year and a half in the role, we wanted to know Benoit’s marketing priorities for … Continue reading “A-B CMO On Defending Bud Light, Super Bowl and More”

Dear Client: It’s going to take days to unpack all of the content from our 20th annual Beer Summit at The Breakers in Palm Beach, Florida. But here are a few interesting sound bites “by the numbers” that stood out to your editors:  90,000 OPEN LINES = THE TOP NATIONAL BRAND ON DRAFT. Jennifer Hauke, … Continue reading “20th Annual Beer Summit: Some Sound Bites By the Numbers”

Dear Client: We kicked off our 20th annual Beer Industry Summit yesterday with a packed house at The Breakers in Palm Beach. What better way to celebrate a major BBD milestone than a Q&A panel with several “OG” beer industry vets who also offered their insight at the first show 20 years ago. We’ve come … Continue reading ““OGs” Grok Beer’s Future”

Dear Client: Recent growth for Constellation Beer may look a little different than we’ve been accustomed to, but its growth still stands at the top and comes in a variety of ways, CEO Bill Newlands hammered home on yesterday’s earnings call. STILL LEADING GROWTH IN BEER. Indeed, while depletion and shipment results for Q3 came … Continue reading “STZ Brass Explains “Recent Series of Headwinds” But Confident in Bounceback”

Dear Client: Constellation Beer reported results for its fiscal Q3 this morning (Sep-Nov), turning in 5.7% depletion growth and shipments up 2.7%. Net sales were up 8%.  That’s a slowing from the prior quarter trend. Recall, Constellation’s good Q2 had been largely in line with both the previous quarter, and the YA comparison, with beer … Continue reading “Constellation Sees Deceleration With 6% Depletion Growth in Q3”

Dear Client: A couple of big headlines are coming out of IRI’s latest one-week sales trends, ended 12/25. “A very merry Christmas as the expected holiday surge delivered and will likely continue forward for another week to account for New Year’s celebrations!” wrote IRI’s Scott Scanlon.  “Consumers clearly filled grocery carts with BevAl as they … Continue reading “Bev Alc Reaches New IRI High in Week to Christmas: $1.74 Billion”

Dear Client: As part of their year-end review, Bump Williams and his crew at BMC put pen to paper and create a “custom calculation” — a proprietary algo of sorts to rank beer brands in the grocery channel based not just on sales growth, although that plays a big part, but on other factors including … Continue reading “BWC’s Impact Brands of 2022”

But also strangely resilient. Dear Client: The analysts at Goldman Sachs put together some historical NielsenIQ scans through mid-December, and the two week vs 52 week prints on beer look fairly promising given the big price increases the industry has taken.  Dollar sales trends for beer, naturally, are hovering at right around +5% for … … Continue reading “Yes, Beer Volume is Deteriorating”

Dear Client: This is yet another example of industry folks looking to beer distribution as their preferred route-to-market.  Sazerac, makers of Fireball and SoCo, is moving from big wine and spirits distributor Republic National (RNDC) to a mixed bag of red and blue beer houses in over 20 states.  Recall last summer Sazerac moved to … Continue reading “Sazerac Makes More Big Moves to Beer Distributors”

Dear Client: Beer industry mergers and acquisitions kept us over at BBD especially busy in 2022. Mirroring the evolution of the bev alc industry, cross-category and beyond beer deals were also the norm this year [see BBD 08-18-2022].  Let’s dig into 2022’s beer industry M&A deals. DISTRIBUTOR DEALS:  (Note: This is not an exhaustive list, … Continue reading “Roundup of 2022 M&A”

A look back at 2022 predictions and outcomes. Dear Client: Well folks, we are nearing the end of another year, and it’s time to take a look at the predictions we made back in early January, and use that as a guide to review what actually happened. As the kids say, Let’s Goooo.  (Format is, … Continue reading “2022, I Hardly Knew You”