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This week in 1998, vice chmn/ceo Pete Coors spoke to distribs at its natl sales convention about importance of freshness and correlated it with improved sales performance. Coors was able to cut number of distribs it rated in "red zone" for poor quality by 90% to just 2%. After testing all distribs in US, Coors found of top 100 distrib in quality audits, 90 had 0.5% or less defects (% of beer out-of-code), and those distribs grew sales by as much as 26-27% in 1997. There were 65 distribs with defects of 2% or greater and their sales dropped as much as 25%, said Pete. Prexy Leo Kiely said: "In 1997, we promised to ship you fresher beer and we delivered. You promised to have fresher beer at retail, and you delivered. Most of us in this room met our volume plans in 1997," and the correlation between quality and success in the mkt "is no coincidence." This week in 2002, INSIGHTS shared thoughts on intriguing article titled "Wholesalers at a Stalemate" in Market Watch Mag. Article forecasted lots of upcoming Diageo spirits distrib consolidation. "We joke about the WSWA convention," said one distrib; in the future "it will be one supplier and one wholesaler, they'll meet, shake hands and go home."This week in 2006, AB discussed the integration of Grolsch at its sales conference. Only 6% of Grolsch volume was currently in AB houses, admin veep Dave Peacock told distribs. But AB had plans to move brands as quickly as possible into AB houses. When AB took over importing brand on Apr 1, it was going to have (at least temporarily) ~325 new (non-AB) distribs, Dave said. But about 16% more of volume could move at that time. Another 8% could occur over next few mos. About 60% "could take longer," and AB didn't yet have enough info on rest. Southern Wine and Spirits sold Grolsch statewide in Florida, New Mexico and Nevada. So SWS sold sizable chunk of Grolsch volume, about 15-20% INSIGHTS estimated. Grolsch became an SAB Miller brand in 2008, and the brand moved under MC's purview in the US. Tho outside of the US, Asahi purchased the global rights to Grolsch from ABI, among other brands that hadda get spun off in the ABI-SAB megadeal in 2016.This week in 2007, Miller Brewing was going thru an unusually tumultuous period on the advertising front. Its key agency Crispin suddenly resigned Lite and High Life accounts less than 1 mo before Miller's natl sales convention. In last 12 mos, Miller had changed campaigns on each of its 3 lead brands and had now parted ways with hi-profile "hot" agency. Several articles suggest writing was on wall when Miller aired ads produced in-house during NCAA tournament. Crispin cited "fundamental differences over creative and strategy." Ad Age wrote that Crispin ads (like Man Laws) "generated buzz and seemed to penetrate pop culture but did a poor job of selling beer." Headlines and spin said Crispin quit, but one mktg expert we know said: "no agency just goes out and resigns a major client like this." Miller had been struggling to find its creative direction for some time. Still, Miller exec veep Tom Cardella wrote its distrib council that week that Miller had "a firm belief in the brand communication strategies" it recently presented to council.This week in 2008, INSIGHTS noted that beer sold by distribs with connection to Busch family or other top AB execs was getting to be pretty sizable. Five "family" operations purchased total of $228.6 mil in "products and wholesaler related services" from AB in '07. That's was up from just $109.7 mil from 3 such distribs in '04. Two distribs in MO - Grey Eagle in St Lou (David Stokes) and Krey in St Charles (Steven Busch) - bought $76.5 mil and $34.4 mil respectively. Grey Eagle's purchases were up 0.8%. Krey was huge jump since Steven didn't own it for all of '06. In Florida - Southern Eagle in Ft Pierce (Peter Busch) and Tri Eagle in Tallahassee (Susan Busch) - bought $39.2 mil (-0.8%), and $29.8 mil (+2.1%) respectively. Given avg price increases, didn't look like Grey, Southern or Tri Eagle scored volume gains in '07. Olympic Eagle up in Kent, WA (Steven Knight, son of board member) purchased $48.7 mil in beer/services, up 2.7%.This week in 2014, INSIGHTS reported Saratoga Eagle (Vukelic family) bought near 1-mil-case Bartyzel in Amsterdam, NY. That was Vukelic family's 4th acquisition on Eastern side of state since 2005 and Saratoga Eagle would be ~6 mil cases. Added together with Try-It in Western NY and Vukelic family's total biz was about 14 mil cases, including about 1.2 mil cases of non-alcohol brands. But Heineken USA brands (around 100K cases) in Bartyzel deal went to DeCrescente, a key MC consolidator upstate NY, about 10 mil cases, including 3 mil NAs at the time.

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