Beer Marketer's Insights - Throwback Thursday

This week in 2000, INSIGHTS pointed out that small Interbrew was quietly becoming a giant in beer industry. With planned purchase of Bass, Interbrew would grow 45 mil bbls in 6 years! Interbrew shipped only 15 mil bbls in 1994, but with $3.5 bil deal to buy Bass, it would become #2 brewer in world, over 60 mil bbls, assuming European Union approval. Six yrs prior it was only 75% as big as Coors and about 1/3 the size of Miller. With Bass, Interbrew would be 3x larger than Coors and almost 1.5x larger than Miller. Interbrew planned on going public later that yr and was vocal about its plans to make more acquisitions. Interbrew merged with AmBev in 2004 to form InBev, then the still-acquisitive combined co followed up with AB deal in 2008. This week in 2001, INSIGHTS noted that AB was on a roll in West South region (AK, OK, LA, and big TX mkt). From 1995-2000, AB jumped 8.9 share points from 44 to 52.8. Got most of that share from Miller, which fell from 27.6 to 21.6 share in region. Coors share was up slightly, gained 0.2 to 13.7. Pabst was down to 4 share in region; 2d tier brewers had 10 share just 5 yrs ago. All Others had very low 7.8 share in this region, but gained 1.8 last 5 yrs. Things obviously changed quite a bit over past decade. In 2024, AB was down to 38.3 share in region, while MC at 20.8 and STZ up to 17.4.This week in 2002, INSIGHTS reported on the incredible pace of consolidation in wine/spirits biz. In aftermath of Diageo/Seagram deal, expect the 4 big wine & spirits distribs in Illinois to be pared back to 2, said vet alc bev atty Mort Siegel at NCSLA meeting. Mort noted too that 6 "national wholesaler" organizations controlled close to 50% of spirits biz. In "some instances," wholesalers controlled as much as 25-28% of a single supplier's business.This week in 2003, INSIGHTS wondered, "can your best customer also be your worst enemy?" That question came to mind after recent remarks by Sam's Club exec to NCSLA convention (state liquor admins). Retailers "should be allowed to at least explore the potential of direct-shipping from suppliers," he told these regulators. While he acknowledged 3-tier "beneficial," it also added "costs and complexities." Walmart systems have allowed suppliers to be much more efficient in production, time-to-market, according to him. Sam's Clubs (owned by Walmart) "not seeking to eliminate the 3-tier system" just to make it "more efficient."This week in 2004, AB made more key exec moves following promotions of Mike Owens, Bob Lachky and Tony Ponturo to strategy committee. Moves were partly related "to AB becoming more of a global co," wrote INSIGHTS. "We're starting to see the need to make sure that talents we have within our domestic company are available to the international company," ceo Pat Stokes told St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Several more changes to key strategy committee also involved succession planning. Longtime group veep (in charge of legal, govt affairs) Steve Lambright announced he was retiring later that yr. Mark Bobak, formerly vp human resources, took his place. Movin' into Mark's HR role and onto strategy committee was Joe Castellano. Another strategy committee member, group veep Don Kloth (procurement, agricultural, transportation), retired with Jim Hoffmeister moving into his position and joining strategy committee. Future co prexy Dave Peacock took Jim's position. Keith Levy took Joe's vp retail mktg slot.This week in 2007, frustrations with AB's importing of InBev brands spilled into mainstream press. Wall Street Journal detailed frustrations of bar patrons, retailers and AB distribs because of ongoing shortages and supply issues. Cited a Chicago bar that had to switch out Stella Artois for Blue Moon because it couldn't get any in stock. "There's nothing worse than an empty tap handle," NY-based distrib Fred Dana told WSJ. Noting high premium paid for brands, Fred added, "Now we don't have the product to recoup our investment." AB and InBev "have taken multiple steps to relieve the delays as quickly as possible," assured veep Dave Peacock.This week in 2012, MillerCoors called in the Cavalry, the ad agency. MC dropped DraftFCB and gave all of Coors brands' biz to WPP. WPP promptly hired Marty Stock, who had worked on Coors ads for over 20 yrs, to head up the new agency (Cavalry) within WPP. Agency switch wasn't a "referendum on the positionings of the brands," WPP global biz director told AdAge. Rather, "we were looking to solve two things," MC cmo Andy England said. That was "an above-the-line and digital integrated solution for Coors brands and "access to a very deep creative bench." Marty's "knowledge of beer advertising and deep understanding of the Coors family of brands is unparallelled," he added. Marty said new products would get a bigger focus too. "There's a willingness to try new things that's probably greater than anything we've seen in the past," said Marty.

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