The Weather Really Does Matter; Huge Regional Differences in SIG Data

Total beer biz down 1.4% in 1st qtr in Symphony IRI Group multichannel data. But unbelievably, there’s almost a 10 point swing in trends between best and worst trending regions. Basically, where weather worse trends were worse, pointed out AB sales veep David Almeida and where better, beer biz did ok. For example, beer sales up 2.5% in West in 1st qtr, but down 6.7% in Midwest. The Southeast and mid-Atlantic were also hard hit. Down 4.6% and 4.2% respectively. Southwest also flat in IRI tho we’ve heard of some big drops in Tex too.

Brewers Assn Growing Even Faster Than Craft Beer; Revs Up Another 23% to $13.4 Mil

Brewers Assn is on a tear in recent yrs, growing at a much faster clip than craft segment it represents. In 2012, BA revs jumped $2.5 mil, 23%. BA revs nearly doubled in last 4 yrs to nearly $13.4 mil ($6.8 mil in 2008). That’s about $1 per bbl of BA-defined craft beer. Wow! And that’s before this yr’s blowout Craft Brewers Conference. Events are still 46% of BA revs and grew another $1.3 mil, 27% in 2012. But membership revs also climbing rapidly. Up $588,000, 30% to $2.5 mil in 2012. That’s as membership jumped from 1352 to 1640 operating brewery members, or 71% of operating breweries. BA has 4775 total members. At end of 2012, BA had $1.3 mil in cash on hand and reserves of $5.6 mil. Small brewers assn is getting to have some financial muscle.

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