Beer Marketer's Insights
"There are no lines anymore… Everybody's in everything" and consolidation will continue, said IBG's Joe Thompson to kick off OG panel yesterday at BBD Summit. Joined on stage by BWC's Bump Williams and Arlington Capital's JB Shireman, Joe added that big money is coming into US beer distribution and "changing the game." On top of NA bev behemoths, "you're gonna have to re-define big" to include "Amazon, Tesla, Apple" and other tech giants that "may decide to take a run at the beer distribution business," while global $$ is looking to get in too, he noted.
"We Are Coming to the End" of "Supply Chain Crisis," Sez HUSA Prexy Maggie; Expect Better 2023
A "supply chain crisis," started the first week of last yr, HUSA prexy Maggie Timoney told BBD Summit. "We couldn't get our beer across the ocean" and "we eventually ran out." She thanked distribs for their "patience" and noted: "We are coming to the end of it" as "our stock with wholesalers is predominantly" back to normal. Dos Equis 2022 softness was also "definitely supply-based," Maggie said, but that's also "getting better." There is "light at the end of the tunnel" and "things are improving."
Bud Light Brand Will Be "More Aspirational, More Confident, More Charismatic," Sez Benoit
With major new Bud Light campaign, brand is "trying to be younger and more vibrant" AB cmo Benoit Garbe told Beer Business Daily's Summit. "A big part of the [Bud Light] decline was with a younger audience," he noted. In recent yrs, "we didn't go all out" on Bud Light, Benoit acknowledged. "We need to commit resources" and allow consumers to "rediscover" brand. Bud Light will keep "one foot in the past and one in the future." AB's "commitment #1 is to stabilize Bud Light."
The new year brings new legislative sessions and renewed efforts in support of the various alcohol policies preferred by one camp or another. This yr, common commercial issues like wine in grocery stores and direct-to-consumer shipments have already shown up in new states alongside a proposal in WA to allow cross-border shipments from out-of-state retailers. Other lawmakers and advocates focused their attention on measures targeting drunk driving. And in the national press, writers used pandemic-era increases in alcohol-related harms to push for more strict alcohol policies.
There's been a changing of the guard at broadline distribution giant KeHe, which named Deb Conklin as its new prexy/ceo effective on Apr 1 as Brandon Barnholt relinquishes roles of past 15 years to move to exec chmn role. He turns 65 in Apr. Naperville, Ill-based distribution giant cited move as part of ongoing succession process, tapping exec who's currently prexy/ceo of KeHe's Reddy Ice packaged ice unit. Barnholt was credited with masterminding KeHe's move from Midwest specialty distrib to "largest pure-play distributor of specialty, natural, organic and fresh products in North America" via acquisitions of regional players like Tree of Life, Nature's Best and Monterrey Provisions. "Pure play" seems intended to set KeHe apart from another broadline giant, UNFI. Conklin has served on board of co, which is owned by its 6,800 employees and boasts B Corp certification. Tho playing in niche, Reddy Ice operates at scale, serving 80,000 retail customers - actually a larger base than KeHe's 3
Consider it the Narragansett Beer among NAs. Launched by Swiss-born former music-biz entrepreneur named Alban de Pury who has a passion for dive bars, Midwest lagers and other Americana, Al's non-alcoholic beer has just signed its first 3d-party distribution partner with plans to ride its un-fancy, down-home positioning to deepen its penetration of regional restaurants, taprooms and music clubs while making first concerted push into grocery. Retro-style cans don't even bother to designate a style, labeling liquid just as Al's "Classic." But the liquid is serious and meant to be "a love letter to classic macro lager," de Pury told us.
In recent years, cold-pressed juice sector has endured fair amount of adversity as Coca-Cola walked away from its Suja partnership, Hain Celestial shuttered BluePrint and indy player Daily Greens shut down too. Broader refrigerated juice segment has been no picnic either as Coke shuttered Odwalla, Pepsi hived off Tropicana, Naked and KeVita brands, and Campbell Soup divested Bolthouse Farms. But some juicing chains have continued to grow and now a regional player in Atlanta called Arden's Garden has been setting the foundation for a major expansion up the East Coast after a bout of growth locally. That in turn will likely foster move into targeted DSD distribution, a new direction for co that until a year ago had never worked with a distributor.
The head brewer and general manager at Fountain Square Brewing will buy the brewery after all, preventing a liquidation sale that would've closed "one of the first breweries to open in the craft beer renaissance in Indianapolis," Indy Star reports. Recall, co was slated for online auction this month, but head brewer/GM Beppe Cuello sought to buy the brewery with his wife Dama and 2 unnamed investors (see Dec 30 issue). That offer was accepted by owner Daryl Starr, with deal expected to close by Jan 15. "It's very competitive," Starr said of the Indy brewery scene, adding that you've got to be "more committed than I am to it."
At the start of a year in which BA economist Bart Watson noted there's a "real possibility" the US could see a "static" number of breweries by the back half, news of several more closings came in at the turn of 2023. The Los Angeles craft scene got "rocked by two sudden brewery closures," headlined Eater LA, with the shutdown of Mumford Brewing and King Harbor Brewing. Those 2 cos helped "anchor" LA's craft beer scene over the past decade but "closed seemingly overnight, sending a shockwave through the tight-knit" SoCal beer community.
Alltech, the large animal nutrition co that also owns Lexington Brewing & Distilling Co, hired spirits vet Lisa Wicker as CEO of newly formed umbrella co Lyons Brewing & Distilling, Lexington Herald Leader reported. This umbrella beer and spirits co includes Lexington Brewing & Distilling and Dueling Barrels Brewery & Distillery in KY, Pearse Lyons Distillery in Dublin, Ireland, and Pearse Lyons Brewery in Dundalk, Ireland. In US, Lexington Brewing & Distilling, maker of Kentucky Bourbon Ale, produced 44K bbls of beer in 2022, article noted. That's flattish vs 2021 and up vs 2019 levels, according to Brewers Assn estimates, even as co's Kentucky hard tea declined steeply. But still down from previous peak in 2017.