Long Island is familiar terrain to Irwin Simon, who for years ran Hain Celestial based there. Now he's augmented beer portfolio at cannabis giant Tilray with pickup of Montauk Brewing, purveyor of straight-ahead styles from east end of island, joining alc portfolio that includes Atlanta's SweetWater, San Diego's Green Flash/Alpine and Colorado's Breckenridge Distillery. The breweries have now all been placed under oversight of Diageo and Glazer's Beer & Beverage vet Ty Gilmore, whose priorities include plugging Montauk into SweetWater's more developed national distribution network as Tilray balances its exposure to slow-developing cannabiz.

NY paper is outlining new front of worker unhappiness at Starbucks, this time automated store in midtown Manhattan that fuses café with Amazon Go cashierless outlet. Story in AM Metro NY reports that staff decided to pursue unionization with Starbucks Workers United after realizing the store's automated features "required employees to go through additional training and take on new responsibilities without any extra pay." Stakes are high, story argues, because "futuristic store is an example of the coffee chain testing new automated technology — a direction that Starbucks' corporate leadership has described to investors as a 'pillar' of the company's reinvention plan." Store located at foot of NY Times building on Eighth Ave opened in Jul.

Sheehan Family Cos selling one of its smaller units, Craft Maine, to 3 Anheuser-Busch distribs in Maine, National Distributing, Maine Distributors and Valley Distributing. Suppliers notified late last week, sources told our sibling letter Insights Express. Tho reportedly well under a half mil cases, Craft Maine's extensive portfolio includes many leading natl and regional craft players, including: Lagunitas, Firestone Walker, Founders, Bell's, Stone and Monster-owned CanArchy. Also sells regional brewers like Maine Brewing and Wachusett, beyond-beer suppliers like June Shine and Bold Rock, and NA brands like Liquid Death, Revitalyte, Two Roots, Odyssey Elixir and Nova Easy Kombucha. Recall, Sheehan Family Cos has 17 operations in 12 states, including several smaller ones across New England. It sold its Calif unit to Classic in Oct 2020, which then sold it to Scout Dist in Sep.

Beth Wilson- Parentice, who found herself surplus to requirements of Emil Capital after it acquired her Sipp sparkler, has re-entered segment in recent months with cleverly named WoW - short for With or Without, positioned as "mocktails, elevated." It's packed in 12-oz slim cans designed as "Spiritfree Sparkling Cocktail," with sketch of female whose "do" is flamboyant array of fruits and flowers keyed to recipe of individual flavor. So far it's being offered in Cucumber Lime Basil, Grapefruit Elderflower Rosemay and Pineapple Ginger Hibiscus. Beth informed us of new venture when we bumped into her at trade show a coupla months back but hasn't responded yet to our request to discuss it in further detail. Website doesn't post nutritionals so its details are unclear, including sweeteners if any and calorie count. A 12-unit case goes for $42 on website.

While many kombucha marketers these days aim for the most broadly accessible offerings, including via canned shelf-stable gut pops, a Brooklyn brand called BKE is taking the opposite approach, exploring offbeat culinary byways with entries that mimic Iranian sharbateh albaloo tart cherry drinks or employ "sacred" palo santo wood to steep a hemp-derived CBD extension. The effort has resonated enough to support a careful expansion that's included the addition of 12-oz cans alongside core 16-oz glass bottles and expansion to a nearby site in Bushwick nabe that allowed BKE to open a public taproom a few weeks ago. Over past 5 months BKE has also committed to using a single tea supplier, procuring assam black tea from local Harney & Sons importers and blenders.

Even amidst extensive ongoing litigation, Sheehan Family Cos selling one of its smaller units, Craft Maine, to 3 Maine AB distribs, National Distributing, Maine Distributors and Valley Distributing. Suppliers notified late last week, sources say. Tho reportedly well under a half mil cases, Craft Maine's extensive portfolio includes many leading natl and regional craft players, including: Lagunitas, Firestone Walker, Founders, Bell's, Stone and CANarchy. Also sells regional brewers like Maine Brewing, Wachusett and many more, plus beyond beer suppliers like June Shine, Bold Rock, etc. Recall, Sheehan Family Cos has 17 operations in 12 states, including several smaller ones across New England. It sold its CA unit to Classic in Oct 2020 (shortly before litigation commenced), which then sold it to Scout Dist this September.

CANarchy remains a miniscule portion of overall Monster sales, but seems to be getting a bit of renewed attention as co eyes alc space more seriously. In Q3 during which Monster posted record sales of $1.62 bil (+15% vs yr ago), CANarchy accounted for $26.8 mil, just 1.7% of total. Follows Q2 in which craft platform similarly generated just under 2% of Monster revs, posting $32.4 mil during peak selling season. Yet CANarchy's operating at a loss this yr. It posted nearly $20 mil oper loss since deal closed, including $10 mil loss in Q3, MNST reported.

Firestone Walker continues to prioritize 805 family and Cali Squeeze as it looks to stabilize rest of its craft portfolio, new Head of Sales Kirsten Demergian shared in fireside chat with Brewbound's Jess Infante at California Family Beer Distrib meeting last week. Recall, Kristen's appointment was announced in Jul following prior CSO David Macon's departure in Apr, and Kristen was originally expected to make the full transition to her elevated role in Jan 2023 (see Jul 1 issue). But she reached phase 3 of co's 3-phase plan in essentially half the planned time. Kristen already worked extensively in CA, co's #1 mkt by far, still representing 75% of its biz, close to 400K bbls.