Beer Marketer's Insights
Corona Cero Hoping for Olympic Boost
Globally, ABI's "betting on Olympic sponsorship to help its new Corona Cero" vault to top among non-alc beers, "but it will need to catch up to rivals like Heineken 0.0," wrote Reuters. When Olympic deal announced in Jan, Corona Cero was available in 19 countries and added another 21 since then. "We're here to play a leadership game," said ABI cmo Marcel Marcondes. "We would love to see Corona Cero become the number one no alcohol beer in the world," he added.
As Boston Beer continues to sell TeaPot cannabis bevs in Canada, co's head of cannabis Paul Weaver expressed an optimistic view on the ability of alcohol and THC to "co-exist happily" in the mkt, The Drinks Business headlined. Asked if he sees THC-infused drinks starting to compete with alcohol, Paul responded that "in a perfect world, these two categories can co-exist happily in the same retail environment." "When sold through traditional alcohol channels," cannabis bevs "have proven quite popular," he noted, seemingly referring primarily to hemp-derived THC bevs in certain US mkts. "But it will be some time before they are a direct competitor to alcohol," Paul thought.
Spirits RTDs slowed to 17.4% $$ sales growth yr-to-date thru Jul 13 in NIQ data provided by Bump Williams Consulting (using NIQ's new expanded database). That compared to 44% growth in 2023. Spirits RTDs totaled $1.4 bil in NIQ YTD. Meanwhile, volume up slightly faster this yr (19%) as avg prices down slightly.
Flash: Southern Glazer's Buying Horizon
Biggest wine and spirits distrib Southern Glazer's will buy Horizon Beverage, which sells spirits, wine and beer in MA and RI, sources told INSIGHTS this morn. Deal pending regulatory approval, but if/when it closes, Southern would then be operating in 46 states, wrote Shanken News Daily. Beer implications could be interesting as Horizon is reportedly largest beer distrib in Rhode Island, selling Miller, Constellation, Boston and local craft. It shares a warehouse with C&C Distributors (a Mancini family company). In MA, Horizon once sold a couple of mil cases of Heineken alone, tho that has declined over yrs. Does this mean Southern's buying back into beer distribution? Or could it look to spin Horizon beer biz off?
Sprecher chief sales officer Gary Goldstein has asked that we offer some greater detail on cutovers from direct-ship to DSD that the Milwaukee-based soda marketer has been making as it fleshes out its network, as we discussed in update yesterday. Kroger converted its 550 non-core direct-market stores to DSD Q3 2023 and Jewel converted all its 180 stores to DSD this month.Meijer chain will convert all its 276 stores to DSD next month, Gary tells us. By now that network has grown to include such key partners in Midwest as Beechwood and General Beverage in Wis; Lakeshore, Superior and Lamonica in Ill; Monarch and Indiana Beverage in Ind; Imperial in Mich, and Ohio Eagle and Superior Beverage in Ohio.
Monster Brewing prexy Tony Short will depart company later this yr, co announced internally. Veteran Monster exec Ray LaRue will take over as Monster Brewing prexy. Ray joined MNST predecessor co Hansen Natural back in 1997. LinkedIn doesn't list any beer experience, so it will be interesting to see how co changes on his watch. Recall that Monster Beverage bought craft beer collective CanArchy in Feb 2022 as vehicle with which to get its own alcoholic brands to market outside of its strategic partner Coca-Cola, which doesn't play in alc. Longtime Anheuser-Busch exec Short had been named CanArchy CEO in 2019 and made transition to new owner, as co went thru rapid series of changes in a short period of time.
Looking to boost its foodservice presence, Califia Farms has acquired what essentially is small gatekeeper to that channel. Its deal to buy Uproot will instantly give it control of countertop plant-bev dispensing system that so far has found its way onto 150 college campuses, including NYU, UNC and Notre Dame, as well as corporate offices and other out-of-home venues. Co's youthful founders Kevin Eve and Jacob Conway will join co. In statement, Califia CEO Dave Ritterbush commended Eve and Conway for having "developed a turnkey solution for dispensing plant-based milk and have achieved impressive distribution in just 5 years. We look forward to building on this foundation, connecting with consumers in new ways and providing our plantmilks to more people." No word in today's announcement on whether Califia will convert Uproot to branded vehicle exclusive to its own brand or continue to source plantmilks from other suppliers too.
Energy drinks (with Monster and Red Bull declining) and liquid coffee segments lost volume while remaining non-alc segments grew volume last 4 wks thru Jul 13, per NielsenIQ data reported by Goldman Sachs' Bonnie Herzog. Small coconut water segment still growing double-digits.
Swedish oatmilk giant Oatly Group continued to report headway toward its goal of profitable growth, generating 9.6% volume gain in Q2 even as it narrowed its EBITDA loss. Meanwhile, it's starting to reopen the marketing spigot, tho balancing its trademark clever whimsy with greater focus on strategic priorities like saving the planet.
Just added to the speaker slate for our 30th annual Beer Insights Seminar this November in NYC: New Belgium ceo Shaun Belongie. Overseeing by far the top craft growth portfolio of the last several years, Shaun will join presidents of other top bev alc growth companies speaking at the Seminar, including Constellation's Jim Sabia and Sazerac's Jake Wenz.