Beer Marketer's Insights
Small craft brewer outta Londonberry, NH, Pipe Dream Brewing, got slapped with a hefty fine for illegally keeping credit card tips and "incorrectly exempt[ing] employees" from "overtime pay requirements," US Dept of Labor's Wage and Hour Division announced. After federal investigation, org "recovered $912,594 for 44 employees," including "$456,297 in back wages and withheld tips as well as an equal amount in liquidation damages," plus an additional $5K fine.
With Weldwerks Brewing now distributing to 30+ states and on track to grow 10%+ in 2024 amid a broader craft slowdown (see July 2 issue), Axios' John Frank adorned the Greeley, CO-based brewer as "Colorado's ambassador to the craft beer world."
Even as Iowa just enacted restrictions on sale of hemp bevs with more than 4mg of THC per 12oz serving, leading in-state cannabev player Climbing Kites continues to build out its biz. It's now "breaking into grocery," inking deal with regional Midwest chain Fareway to sell Climbing Kites cannabevs "at all 116 locations across Iowa," co announced today.
Of the 9,761 total breweries in the US, just 86 are Black-owned, according to the National Black Brewers Association's (NB2A) 2024 "State of the Black Brewers" report. While that's already less than 1% of all breweries in operation, only 12 Black-owned breweries actually operate their own production facility, or 0.01% of the industry total.
The avg price of a pint hasn't kept up with inflation or labor costs over the last 3 yrs, Brewers Assn staff economist Matt Gacioch showed in part 2 of a 3-part series examining onsite sales trends. (See our writeup of the first installment here.) Since the start of 2021, the avg pre-tax price of a pint in the US "rose steadily from $6.05 up to $6.85 at the end of 2023," Matt determined based off Arryved data. But inflation increased at a faster pace, meaning this "vital economic benchmark" dropped in "real terms" over that period.
After a decade leading the Brewers Assn and 32 yrs with the BA and a predecessor org, Bob Pease will retire in early 2025. Bob moved up from customer service mgr to ops director of the Association of Brewers, beginning in 1993, before rising to VP of that org in 1999. When AOB merged with the Brewers Assn of America in 2004, Bob served just below the combined org's prexy Charlie Papazian. Bob was named COO in 2010, just as craft beer began a period of speedy growth. He took the reins from Charlie as prexy/CEO in 2014, overseeing the org as craft hit new heights and then transitioned into a tougher period. Bob will serve until early 2025, when he plans to pass the torch to his predecessor, which BA retained Kittelman & Associates to help find. (This is an extended version of article that appeared in INSIGHTS Express yesterday.)
Slightly more US adults reported drinking craft beer than a yr ago, two different surveys show. But they're turning to craft less frequently. And there are now more craft drinkers who say they're cutting back than there are ramping up consumption. That's some of the reason why craft isn't growing lately, Brewers Assn's team of economists, Bart Watson and Matt Gacioch presented today.
At BevNet Live Showdown a few weeks ago, Pretty Tasty canned collagen brand proved to be the winner (BBI, Jun 13). That's a launch we'd already been tracking with interest (BBI, Jan 18). Who else made it to the final round of 6 contestants as voted by expert judges and audience members? Here are quick profiles of the other 5 along with some judges' comments.
Athletes in France in quest of Olympic rings don't mean the ones that hold 6-pk cans together. More than 100 stars are urging soda giants Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and Coca-Cola European Partners, the megabottler, to significantly increase the use of reusable packaging in a bid to tackle plastic pollution at the event, per reports in Yahoo Finance and other outlets. Campaign, orchestrated by Sailors for the Sea (Powered by Oceana) and EcoAthletes, comes ahead of Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, which are anticipated to bring largest-ever use of reusable bev packaging at a sporting event. But the 102 athletes across 43 sports and 30 countries think the bevcos can do better. Citing research from Oceana that even a 10% increase in reusable bev pkg globally by 2030 could prevent more than a trillion single-use plastic bottles and cups from entering environment, they want the cos to commit to legally binding targets. The letter is addressed to KO CEO James Quincey, PEP CEO Ramon Laguarta and Coca-Cola European Partners CEO Damian Gammell.
Consumer prices moved into negative territory in Jun, for first time since early days of pandemic. Bureau of Labor Statistics' widely watched Consumer Price Index dropped 0.1% in Jun, bringing annual inflation rate to 3%, down from 3.3% a month earlier. Economists had been expecting a 0.1% monthly increase and annual gain of 3.1%, per FactSet consensus estimates reported by CNN. Falling gas prices and drop in car prices (both new and used) played key roles in overall decline, the first month-on-month decline since May 2020, per BLS historic data. The news was greeted with broad expectation that Federal Reserve Board might feel that it's free now to ease interest rates, as long as forthcoming labor data doesn't disrupt picture.