"What we've been observing more often now is the acceleration of being home," ABI global cmo Marcel Marcondes told Wall St Jnl in substantive interview. After the pandemic, people wanted to go out. "Now we totally see people staying at home more to save. It isn't that they aren't going to drink beer. They will drink more beer at home." When WSJ asked Marcel how much mktg resources will shift to "in home" pitches, he said: "We're going to see a significantly higher focus now on in home consumption." He then added: "And you're going to see a significant increase in the relevance of our direct-to-consumer platforms. So the combined effect of those two elements is a significant shift for us as a company." The DTC comment likely more about global than US (where DTC very limited), but much of interview about US.

Dry Jan didn't make much of a dent in overall beer scans, with volume flattish compared to down big last yr in Jan. But NAs were the fastest-growing segment, while lead non-alc brands got a big-time boost. Total beer sales grew 7%, cases down 0.3% in IRI MULC data thru Jan 29. NA beer $$ up 34% and cases +20%. Sold almost $24 mil in this dataset, adding $6 mil vs yr ago, +0.17 share to 0.82 of total beer. Importantly, NAs grew 0.54 share to over 2 share in foodstores (2.2). Bigger than cider in period.

Run rate of $150 mil with no outside capital?! A single sku in a decade?! We found that strategy at Athletic Greens to be so beyond our ken that we forgot that the deal cited as a peg in Press Clips item we ran yesterday was about a year old. Still, far as we can tell, all the details were dead on, and it's clarifying read at time investors' checkbooks have gotten harder to pry open . . . In profile of 3E energy line launched by John Bellamy and Dr Christian Gregory we mistakenly described Christian, not John, as the Vietnam vet who won a Purple Heart that enables the company to be accredited as disabled-vet-owned. We also had meant to include SRP of $2.49-2.79 for 12-oz can of nutritious-energy line.

Want to get ahead? Randy Ornstein, former Anheuser-Busch exec who's now Gopuff's bev czar, found time during his frenzied startup life to pen a book called Grow: The Essential Guide to Getting Promoted. Written during pandemic with his wife Hayley Ornstein, who has a PhD in counseling psychology from Univ of Oklahoma, the paperback traverses considerable ground beyond career management, including a chapter called "Get the Yes" on best practices for selling items into retailers and another on how best to structure a presentation. (Tho, he warns, at first sign that buyer's eyes are glazing over - ditch it!) Drawing on his own experiences selling A-B items like Teavana Iced Tea into retailers and being pitched bevs in his current role at Gopuff, Ornstein urges salespeople to always include multiple asks, the most important first, and to develop an effective postgame plan to communicate right after the meeting. He's hosting a webinar next Wed on that "Get the Yes" chapter in partnership with Startup CPG.

It's been perennial topic of debate, going back decades, when non-alc brand moves into alc space: how to position and target it distinctly enough not to create regulatory blowback. As these items proliferate in recent era of convergence, it's no surprise that some statehouses are startin' to take an interest. Case in point: Virginia could become first state to formally regulate placement of NA brands crossing over to alc side. A pair of bills advancing in General Assembly would "require Hard Mtn Dew and similar products containing alcohol be kept separate from their regular soft drink counterparts on store shelves," Pluribus News reports. The bills cleared each chamber with "nearly unanimous votes," backed by Anheuser-Busch, Molson Coors and the Virginia Beer Wholesalers Assn. While soft drink industry has "largely remained on the sidelines" of debate so far, bills are no doubt being watched closely by big bevcos who've lately been taking alc biz more seriously.

Once viewed as cannabis kingpin,Canopy Growth kept bleeding $$$ on its top and bottom lines in fiscal Q3 reported this morning while dumping hard assets in push toward asset-light model and prepping for bigger push in US. With illicit sellers still running rampant in core Canada market and federal dereg stalled in US, co's uninfused BioSteel hydration brand is loomin' larger in its hopes of getting on financially sustainable footing - tho with that brand it was a mixed picture too, as strong scanner sales were undermined by reduced topline and writedown on aged-out inventory that didn't find a home during slower-than-anticipated US buildout.

This week in 1992, Heileman prexy Tom Rattigan told LaCrosse Tribune that idea of merging Stroh and Heileman was a no go in his view. "Why merge two declining breweries? That's sort of like a cancer patient taking aspirin. You're still going to die. You've just prolonged the agony." Ouch. A TBT classic. A Stroh rep responded to INSIGHTS: "What about one declining brewery? We were up in January."

Canopy Growth kept bleeding $$$ on its top and bottom line in fiscal Q3 (from Oct-Dec) while reshuffling its deck and prepping for a bigger push in US. So Canopy is making massive organizational changes including shift to "asset light" model in Canada that will result in facility closure, laying off 60% of its workforce including 800 positions impacted. Co's "exiting cannabis flower cultivation" and sourcing of cannabis flower from its own facilities, and moving to "third party sourcing model for cannabis beverages, edibles, vapes, and extracts," co announced. This is just the latest in a long string of cutbacks and layoffs for Canopy. Prior to this announcement, Canopy reduced its workforce by 1,600 since 2020 (see Apr 27, 2022 issue).