Tamarron Consulting has published the results of its latest “Malt Beverage Supplier Performance Survey,” naming MillerCoors as the top-rated beer manufacturer in the U.S.
More than 220 U.S. beer distributors representing approximately one third of total U.S. malt beverage industry volumes responded to the survey, which asked wholesalers to rate performance and share perceptions of the leading domestic and import beer companies.
For the first time in the history of the MillerCoors joint venture, the company was ranked no. 1 in the Tamarron survey, just slightly ahead of Boston Beer Company, which had previously held the top spot for the last seven years.
MillerCoors narrowly edged Boston out by a score of 3.61 to 3.59 (out of 5), notching itself midway between “good” and “very good” on Tamarron’s scale.
Constellation Brands’ beer division, meanwhile, ranked third with a score of 3.46.
Both Boston Beer and Constellation notched a higher number of “A” and “B” grades for relationship and performance, however. Boston Beer led all suppliers in relationship grades, with 89 percent of respondents give the company an A” or “B” grade. Constellation received the same percentage for its performance.
Anheuser-Busch InBev and Craft Brew Alliance ranked at the bottom of the list with scores of 2.48 and 2.56, respectively, while an industry average score of 3.0 for overall performance was also noted by Tamarron.
For all suppliers, however, the survey showed declines in 12 of the 13 “function-level” categories such as leadership, annual field sales planning, trade marketing and field sales execution, among other key areas. Industry-wide averages for field sales execution and innovation dipped 0.15 points each, while finance and revenue management performance declined 0.18 points, the most of any individual category.
Areas where suppliers excelled included three-tier advocating, distributor margins and annual plan timelines. Areas where suppliers had lower scores included price promotion post-evaluation, selling skills training and consumer experience training, among others.
The survey was sent to about 1,200 beer distributors with average annual revenues between $25 million and $300 million, according to Tamarron.
Additional survey findings:
- The average number of brands and SKUs carried by distributors who responded to the survey have increased fourfold since 2005. That year, distributors averaged just 268 SKUs each, compared to 1,082 in 2016.
- 46 percent of responding distributors had revenues of less than $50 million.