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This week in 1985, INSIGHTS reported that so far there wasn't much of a hit to beer shipments in states that upped minimum drinking age to 21. Some industry observers speculated beer shipments would be hurt by higher drinking age. Yet, in 13 mos since 7 states raised minimum age, INSIGHTS reported shipments declined in 3 of those states while growing in other 4. "So, if anything, data so far strongly suggests that the passage of higher minimum age is having no important effect on total beer sales in most states," wrote INSIGHTS. That corroborated Mich State University study that found higher drinking age didn't have an important effect in that state, while deposit law there had a much greater effect. This week in 1989, plenty of folks in beer biz said, "hey wait a minute," when Britain's largest brewer Bass struck deal to buy over 1400 Holiday Inn hotels. All of those hotels had bars, so many observers flagged development as a tied house violation. But turned out those hotels were all franchised, keeping Bass at arms-length from bar biz. Just the previous year, Grand Met bought Pillsbury and then sold off its Bennigan's and Steak and Ale restaurants because of tied house regs. Hotel deal turned out to be no holiday for Bass. After acquiring chain for ~$2.3 bil in 1989, it sold to Bristol Hotels for only ~$660 mil in cash and stock in Dec 1996. Grand Met and Guinness merged in 1997.This week in 2002, INSIGHTS reported Captain Morgan Gold extension brand was sinking. Diageo had cut prices to help move inventory and took a $38 mil provision for vast amounts of unsold Captain Morgan Gold. Captain had ~$42 mil in sales in fiscal yr ended June 30, according to Financial Times. But writedown was just a drop in bucket for giant Diageo, which still delivered on bottom line with pre-tax profits of a whoppin' $3.1 bil and met analyst expectations for fiscal yr. Diageo pulled the plug on Captain Morgan Gold by Halloween that yr. Came back with Captain Morgan Sliced FMBs over 20 yrs later. Tho that product isn't cycling 2024 launch numbers.This week in 2003, Florida Miller/Coors distribs struck deal to purchase much of Labatt USA portfolio from Southern Wine and Spirits (which had 'em statewide). Included FEMSA brands, Boddington's etc at the time. About 400K cases in all. Two interesting angles: several of shared house distribs had sold Modelo brands to AB guys a couple of years prior. So now they had Mexican brands in portfolio again. Then too, FEMSA brands were previously sold semi-direct to chain warehouses but would now be delivered DSD. FEMSA left LUSA following yr and struck first iteration of its deal with Heineken shortly after.This week in 2006, Boston Beer founder/chmn Jim Koch told Prudential's Back-to-School conference the future for craft brewers may be "harder than the past." He saw continued 6-8% growth for high-end, and "mass domestic beers" to be in a "chronic long-term decline." But big brewers (like AB, InBev, SABMiller and Diageo) workin' hard to "get their piece" of high-end, and as strong, "sophisticated" competitors "they usually get it right" eventually, said Jim.This week in 2010, it was back to the future for AB in NJ as it added a branch. AB had letter of intent to purchase 3-mil-case Jersey Eagle from Klopcic family. Deal was expected to close within 60 days. That was quite a switch in NJ, where AB held steady at 29 share last 3 yrs. Many yrs ago, one of AB's biggest and most powerful branches was located in Newark. Then it was split 4 ways. Now AB had deal to pick up one of the pieces. Klopcics, who were one of largest AB distribs, was divesting itself of this asset in Jersey mkt, but was still at ~12 mil cases in MI. They bought Soave Enterprises distrib in Kalamazoo the prior year. "So this divestiture is likely prelude to a further acquisition somewhere down the line," wrote INSIGHTS. In recent yrs, AB's mostly divesting its branches.This week in 2011, Glazer's reached an agreement to acquire Halo Dist in San Antonio, first reported by Shanken News Daily. This was Glazer's first move into a "leading metropolitan beer market" that would push Glazer's beer revs to around $500 mil, putting it in top 10 among beer distribs, noted report. Deal would jump it to around 26 mil cases, INSIGHTS noted. Halo was a 6.5 mil-case MC house. Purchase price was over $100 mil. At that point, there was just letter-of-intent, pending supplier approval. Deal closed in Nov that yr.This week in 2015, MillerCoors dropped the interim tag and handed Gavin Hattersley reins as ceo. Since he took over as MC ceo on interim basis on July 1, Gavin had moved quickly, changing top execs and firing key ad agency. So MillerCoors board had removed interim title and made him permanent ceo just 4 wks after MolsonCoors ceo Mark Hunter said that he and Alan Clark, ceo of SABMiller, "have made good progress" on search for permanent ceo. "Gavin is the right person to lead MillerCoors forward," said chmn Pete Coors. "In his few short months as interim leader, he has quickly taken action against a number of areas," and has "shown a deep understanding of the strategic issues facing the business and the need to prioritize returning MillerCoors to total volume growth in the years ahead," said Alan. Gavin remained in his role as cfo at MolsonCoors "until mid-November" as co searched for replacement. After a 10-yr run, Gavin is retiring at end of this yr with his successor still unnamed.

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