Decision yesterday was big win for tobacco and could make it tuffer for states, local communities to pass (or keep) alc bev billboard bans, other ad restrictions.  “Court agreed,” wrote NY Times, that restriction on outside ads (and inside ads that could be seen from outside) “violated the manufacturers’ right to commercial speech.”  Tho restrictions aimed at kids, interfered with legit messages to adults.  More on decision in Jul Alc Issues INSIGHTS.

Ones we know: Mass; Colo , RI , Vt.  In Calif, top dozen import/specialty suppliers shipped nearly 4 mil bbls in 2000, 19 share, so gotta be over 20 there too.  Top 3 importers in Calif—Barton, Labatt, Heineken—shipped almost 3 mil bbls alone.  Three big specialty players--Sierra, Boston, Redhook—shipped another 370,000 bbls.  Import/specialty gotta be over 20 in NY too, tho data not available.  Big beer mkts where import/specialty has lotsa room to grow (under 8 share): Tex, Oh, Wisc, Mo. 

Overwhelmingly: 132-10. Now up to gov.

At least for imports. While cans continue to lose share of domestic beer, can biz up bet-ter than 20% in 2 of last 3 yrs for imports as both Corona and Heineken started to place more focus on can pack-ages. In 2000, imported can biz jumped 486,000 bbls, 23.7% to 2.6 mil bbls. That was 13% of total import biz. Imported draft also grew faster than total import segment in 2000. Jumped 214,000 bbls, 13.6% to 1.8 mil bbls, even while total US draft biz down. Draft at 9% of imports, just like for domestic brands. While imports in bot-tles grew at slower pace than segment overall, still up 1.5 mil bbls, 10.6% in 2000. Not bad.

As Maris trial heads into week 10, looks like AB will start to present its side next week. Maris rested its case midday today.  But first, one more witness: Rudy Maris!  After not being called by his own atty, judge decided he wants to hear from Rudy, so he’s calling him to testify.  Meanwhile, Charlie Walker, sales mgr for Maris’ Ocala location, testified in his 30 yrs he never repackaged old beer or witnessed any other Maris employee do it.  Charlie said he got compliments on Maris fleet, that Maris had no turnover problem, that AB district mgr in 93-94 told him Maris “was the best distributor he had.”  On cross, AB atty established Rudy was in charge of warehouse and fleet, not Charlie.  Charlie never read equity agreement, nor did he understand significance of MET process, and never saw MET results.  Roger Maris Jr, general sales mgr, finished his testimony this morning.  Details next week.

“Democrats are for beer and girls. Republicans are for cold beer and hot girls.” So claimed SC Repub to group of high school senior boys, attempting to one-up SC Dem who’d just pointed out that a $4500 scholarship “can buy a lot of beer and girls.” Talk turned serious after these remarks, Repub assured AP.

Cover story in Aug Consumer Reports is beer.  First time since 96 that CR has done taste test.  Used 2 consultants this time with 20 yrs beer experience.  Can’t give results but some folks will be happy, some not and lotsa folks will be surprised.  Top-rated domestic lager, not sold by a top 3 brewer or a micro, is getting increasingly hard to find. 

 

In the 28 mos since New York City started seizing the cars of suspected drunk driving offenders, 4004 vehicles have been taken.  That’s avg of 143 per month.  No mention in news reports how many people have been able to win car back in court.       

1^st qtr 2001 trends in Ohio, 7^th biggest US beer mkt, show AB up 24,000 bbls, 2.4%.  Total shipments down 0.6% for 3 mos.  Coors continued solid growth: up 7,000 bbls, 6%.  (Coors up 7%+ in Oh each of last 4 yrs.)  Miller stung: down 34,000 bbls, 7.1%.  Big importers rollin’ YTD: Gambrinus jumped 83%, Heineken up 31%, Labatt up 27%.  For 12 mos, total shipments eked out 0.3% gain, AB up 0.6%, Miller off 3.6%, Coors up 7%; top-3 importers each up double-digits.

Roger Jr, Maris general sales mgr, testified that he only discovered that former employees had re-packaged old beer during their depositions for this case.  Recalled at least 2 employees admitting to it in depositions.   AB atty (out of jury’s earshot) told judge that Roger Jr’s statement is a “watershed admission” because “the fact that their employee did it is attributable to Maris Distributing, and it’s that simple.”  Also argued law precludes Maris from “arguing that they are not responsible for what their employees did,” whether they knew about it or not. 

In earlier testimony, Roger Jr disagreed with AB MET ratings of Maris on everything from warehouse to POS.  Said Maris paid salesmen avg salary of $33K per yr, more than competitors paid.   Said in summer of 96, former mkt mgr Tom Caddick had “very negative attitude” towards Maris and would try to “spin” and “undermine” employees.  In 29 yrs, Roger recalled, Maris Dist fined maybe 4 or 5 employees for “sneaking beer back into the warehouse.”  Maris Dist never encouraged employees to repackage old beer, Roger said: “Its just a losing proposition all the way around. . . it’s not our principles and values to do something like that.”  More to come from Roger Jr, mother Pat and Uncle Rudy.