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This week in 2000, Miller CEO John Bowlin explained Miller's "particularly critical decision" in altering "shared house strategy" in recent Bev World interview. He said Miller and others showed distribs need at least 25 share ("ideally 30") to be strong, compete effectively. But Miller natl share was 22, high teens in many mkts. So only way for lotsa distribs to be viable was with companion brands. First step had to be to ensure distrib is viable. 2d step: workin' with distribs to improve "focus and execution. To do it the other way around, which we had been doing, is to put the cart before the horse&hellip;. That change in thinking was a huge shift we made, not just in wholesaler relations, but in the way we approach business," said John. Miller and Coors distribs consolidated in many, many mkts in ensuing yrs and in 2008, Miller and Coors combined nationally at supplier level. This week in 2002, Miller announced it planned to spend over $100 mil on its 3 new malternatives SKYY Blue, Stoli Citrona, Sauza Diablo, at its natl sales conference. Orders for SKYY Blue were 200K bbls for Feb-Mar, co noted. Add in Diageo's approx $200 mil, AB's over $60 mil, Mike's $50 mil or so and you get over $400 mil of total mktg support for malternatives in 2002. Those were some big bets. Stoli and Sauza entries were set to debut that spring. Newly announced Jack Daniel's malternative brand was scheduled to roll out in Sep. That got 1 of biggest rounds of applause at conference. Tho virtually all flopped in short order with Smirnoff Ice the only one to ride out the storm. On another note, INSIGHTS cited a nice human touch too: a standing O for departing sr sales veep Jim Mortensen.This week in 2003, the lead Maris Dist attorney was facing possible suspension. "Read my lips: This was sour grapes," atty Willie Gary told press conference in response to news that grievance committee for Florida Bar assn found probable cause in 10 complaints against Willie for his conduct during trial vs AB in 2001. Special master appointed by judge in case also found cause against 2 other Maris attys, Madison McClellan and Patricia Hoffler, according to Palm Beach Post. No charges were found against AB atty Peter Moll. Gary and McClennan were cleared of all charges the following Jan.This week in 2004, as analysts weighed in on massive Interbrew/Ambev deal, Bear Stearns said deal was "terrible news for Molson. If Molson didn't have a bullseye on its back, it does now," analyst Justin Hott told Canadian paper Leader Post. First, Molson faced much bigger co as key competitor in Canada. Second, had to keep in mind Molson was coming off terrible year in Brazil, where its top distrib was Coke bottler owned by FEMSA. Interbrew owned 30% of FEMSA, a stake it was passing on to its new partner, Ambev, #1 brewer in Brazil. Predictably, another analyst speculated in WSJ that deal "may push Molson to seek merger partners." It merged with Coors in 2005.This week in 2006, even as UK analysts stayed positive on SABMiller's prospects, some had grown more skeptical of Miller's. In a 72-pg report "Growing Up, Not Slowing Up," Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein's Matthew Jordan upgraded SABMiller stock, expecting "accelerated" growth starting in Apr that yr "driven by significant upside at Bavaria." But long section on Miller called: "the problem child." Miller "faces the portfolio challenge of having brands mostly exposed to declining categories" and "will struggle to achieve overall volume growth." Revs will be "flat at best." DrKW analysis estimated a 6% EBITDA reduction at Miller in yr thru Mar 31 to $458 mil. ROI on Miller was only about 5%, according to DrKW analysis. SABMiller paid $1 bil too much for Miller back in 2002 (purchase price was $5.4 bil), concluded DrKW.This week in 2007, INSIGHTS wrote that recent Miller/Coors deal in KC between High Life Sales and Big Sky came with a twist. Three AB distribs bought 350K cases of Modelo portfolio. That was first major Modelo deal under Crown where brands switched to AB distribs. Crown prexy Bill Hackett told INSIGHTS a couple of weeks prior: "We haven't changed our approach one iota." Crown evaluated distribs on mkt-by-mkt basis. Went with AB network in this deal, which changed terms of transaction. But they reworked it, and Central States Bev Co was (re)born as a 5-mil case distrib, including about 600K cases of Boulevard. Meanwhile, Reyes Holdings closed on Gate City in San Bernardino, Calif and kept about 3 mil cases of Modelo brands in 10-mil-case deal (reportedly sold for well over $100 mil, including real estate). Deal spoke to limits of AB/Modelo partnership, since AB must have desired Modelo portfolio for its branches/distribs there.This week in 2015, ABI ceo Carlos Brito addressed "the profitability impact" of losing Corona and Monster in several branches. "What's your compensation gain?" asked Deutsche Bank's Tristan Van Stein. Brito responded that yes branches would lose brands, but "in terms of impact for the overall company-owned wholesalers, or WOD as we call it, is minimum." (Editor's note: some individual branches were likely to lose 25% or more of gross profit.) Then Brito talked about what he saw as "silver lining." Loss of Monster and Constellation "will provide us with an amazing opportunity to focus on our own brands, which we think will be very well received." Brito acknowledged that it will "get compensation" for both but called that "private" per contract and did not disclose. "When you're given the opportunity to acquire a branch, how do you weigh the economic upside from the acquisition of that branch versus the potential for antagonism elsewhere inside the distribution network?" asked Bernstein's Trevor Stirling. "We don't have a plan to 'acquire' branches," retorted Brito. There is a "consolidation idea," but whether there "is an opportunity for us to own or if it's better to pass it along to one of the great operators we have" is "case-by-case; there's no plan."

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