Dear Client: The latest Beer Purchasers Index is in, and it continues to reflect the post-COVID world. Recall, the index measures how much distributors are buying, and anything over a 50 signifies segment expansion.  June’s composite reading of 70 for overall beer is good, as it’s in expansive territory. However, it still falls 11 points … Continue reading “FMB/Seltzer BPI Index Plummets: Stuffed Inventories?”

Dear Client: We promised more insights from the three-tier panel at the BARC conference this month. Today we’ll grok Gen Z trends —and most pertinently, supply issues on the wine and spirits side.  ON SUPPLY. A few BBD readers have asked us: Are the wine and spirits industries plagued with shortages, as with beer? Rest … Continue reading “Wine and Spirits are Seeing Shortages, too”

Dear Client: Ever wonder about the state of three tier on the spirits side? The Beverage Alcohol Retailers Conference a couple weeks back explored just that. And the lessons were just as salient for beer – especially the need to defend the three tier system from things like direct sales efforts, while empowering three-tier friendly … Continue reading “Spirit Guys Mount a Defense of Three Tier”

Dear Client: We caught up with Julie Carbon, VP of Heineken USA’s Central Business Region, on the latest trends. It’s timely, as they’ve launched big Dos Equis innovations — such as Lime & Salt, and the colorful Dos Equis Variety Pack — in key Dos markets like Texas. Those items, helped by the new “Get … Continue reading “Dos Equis Innovation Moving the Needle”

Dear Client: The New Jersey bill, dubbed SB 3452, which seeks to equivalize the state excise tax between malt-based RTDs and distilled spirits-based canned cocktails has passed out of a Senate committee yesterday. And so it lurches forward through the bowels of the Assembly.  We covered DISCUS’ (spirits guys) take on the bill — which … Continue reading “New Jersey Equivalency Bill Lurches Forward”

Dear Client: Yesterday morning’s BBD was met with the following response from a distributor reader. (You will recall we detailed Nielsen data on “beyond beer” supremacy for the Memorial Day holiday, and flaccid trends for pretty much any other bev alc.)  “First it was can shortage and now bottle shortage,” the distributor wrote. “Unfortunately the … Continue reading “Bottles A Major Sticking Point for A-B this Summer”

Dear Client: Last week, we reported Fintech and NBWA on- and off-premise data showing that seltzer didn’t quite break the 10 share mark for this year’s Memorial Day holiday. That may be. But recent Nielsen data shows that, at least in the off-premise, seltzer snagged almost 12 dollar share (11.7% to be exact) of beer … Continue reading “Only ‘Beyond Beer’ Outpaced Memorial Day’s Crazy Comps”

Dear Client: New Jersey is the first true battleground between beer and spirits over excise tax equivalency on spirits-based canned cocktails, and the battle there is beginning to heat up. Recall, at issue in The Garden State is a new bill floating in the Senate, dubbed SB 3452, that looks to equalize the state excise … Continue reading “Equivalency Fight Heats Up in NJ with “Myth” Busting Letter from DISCUS”

Dear Client: From diversity, to cannabis, to canned cocktails and their war on seltzer, the “industry trends” session at the Beverage Alcohol Retailers Conference in Austin last week covered all the bases. Here’s what a liquor store owner (Kami Banks of Delaware’s Banks Wine & Spirits), a Drizly exec (Blaine Grinna, director of business development) … Continue reading “Retailers Dish on Hot Topics, Diversity to Cannabis”

Dear Client: NBWA chief economist Lester Jones posted an interesting seltzer share chart using Fintech and NBWA numbers. Seltzer wasn’t able to break 10 share around the Memorial Day holiday, though it sorta “kissed” that benchmark last year. It’s now roughly the same volume base as it was in 2020, YTD to June.  Seltzer is … Continue reading “Seltzer Couldn’t Break 10 Share for Memorial Day, But…”

Dear Client: You don’t need us to tell you that growth is hard to come by in the off-premise nowadays. But here’s a little data point that shows just how difficult it has become… Only a fifth of the Top 100 Brands in IRI’s multi-outlet and convenience channel grew dollars in the latest four weeks … Continue reading “Only a Fifth of the Top 100 Beer Brands Grew Dollars in Latest Scans”

Dear Client: The last time we reported on monthly import shipments trends, things were not looking too hot: import shipments had fallen 4.6% during the month of March, bringing YTD volume to near flat (+0.2%). But trends took a dramatic turn in April, as import shipments grew 27% during the month, putting YTD growth back … Continue reading “Import Shipments Post Monster Month in April, Up 27%”

Dear Client: JuneShine, a hard kombucha company founded just a few years ago in San Diego, has had the eye of financial investors, and now, it’s catching the attention and dollars of certain celebrities too. The top-selling hard kombucha supplier in the nation has just wrapped up a Series A funding round that includes not … Continue reading “Top Hard Kombucha Maker Nets Celebrity Investors”

Dear Client: What a difference a couple of months makes. Where, back in March, we reported that seltzer was putting a lot of wind in distributors’ sales outlook, now a confluence of tough comps and a crowded market is starting to throw some rain on that forecast. (That rainy metaphor is especially apt, as many … Continue reading “Seltzer No Longer “Setting the World on Fire”?”

Dear Client: Remember that trademark dispute between Future Proof’s seltzer Brizzy and Molson Coors’ lead seltzer Vizzy that kicked off at the beginning of 2020? You know, the one where Future Proof sued Molson Coors over Vizzy stating that similarities were likely to cause confusion with its own seltzer, Brizzy? Yeah, well that year-and-a-half-long spat … Continue reading “Brizzy vs. Vizzy Suit Settled”