As the majority of beer business stakeholders continue to examine what impact recreational cannabis could have on the industry, one alcohol trade association has officially come out in support of legalizing the psychedelic drug. The Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America (WSWA), A Washington, D.C. trade group that works to advance the interests of distributors and brokers of wine and spirits, yesterday announced “an official policy position in favor of a state’s right to establish a legal, well-regulated, adult-use cannabis marketplace.”
Craft Brew Alliance (CBA) is making good on its promise to innovate in products other than beer, namely low- or no-alcohol drinks. The publicly traded Portland, Oregon-based craft beer company — which makes and markets the Kona Brewing, Widmer Brothers, Redhook, Omission and Square Mile Cider brands, and has partnerships with Appalachian Mountain Brewery, Wynwood Brewing, and Cisco Brewers – has launched what it has dubbed the “pH Experiment.”
Constellation Brands will expand its reach in the craft beer segment with the acquisition of Texas’ Four Corners Brewing, the New York-based beverage alcohol company announced today. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
In an effort to “better align” its internal structure with its “long-term business strategy,” Anheuser-Busch has split its “High End” craft and import division into two separate business units. Announced to employees and distributors yesterday, the restructuring will include the creation of a standalone craft beer division, led by Felipe Szpigel, whose title will change to “president of craft.”
MillerCoors chief marketing officer David Kroll will leave the company on July 27, CEO Gavin Hattersley wrote in a memo to distributors and employees on Monday. Kroll, who joined MillerCoors in mid-2012 as a vice president in charge of U.S. marketing and took over as CMO in July 2015, is leaving to “pursue other independent business interests,” Hattersley said.
As the summer season gets into full swing, a growing number of drinkers are purchasing hard seltzers, according to recent data from market research company Nielsen. Year-to-date dollar sales of hard seltzer products across the aggregate of measured off-premise channels totaled $257 million through June 16, compared to $85 million during the same period last year (and $8.5 million in 2016), said Danny Brager, the senior vice president of Nielsen’s beverage alcohol practice.
In this edition of People Moves: Joe Menetre, the former vice president of sales at New Belgium Brewing Company, has joined Fort Collins-based Suerte Tequila. Meanwhile, Constellation Brands has appointed former DHL executive Ricardo Bartra as its chief technology officer, and Sun King Brewing president Bob Whitt will step back from his day-to-day responsibilities at the end of July.
Midway through 2018, off-premise volume sales of craft beer across a variety of large-scale retail stores are up just 1.7 percent, according to market research firm IRI Worldwide. While craft beer dollar sales at grocery, club, drug, dollar, mass merchandiser and convenience stores were just shy of $2 billion through June 17, up 2.9 percent year-to-date, the most recent trends point to a slowdown as brewing companies head into an important summer season.
U.S. consumers looking to catch a buzz without the booze will soon be able to purchase an assortment of beer-centric products thanks to a pair of ventures aiming to disrupt the current alcohol market with cannabis-infused beverages.
After 20 years of brewing beer in South Carolina, Thomas Creek Brewery is considering a possible sale of the business, co-owner Tom Davis told Brewbound. Thomas Creek, which brews its own line of beers as well as a variety of other labels for large and small companies alike, including Bacardi, has retained brokerage firm National Restaurant Properties to secure upwards of $8 million to expand the Greenville-based craft brewery.
London’s Beavertown Brewery today announced that Heineken International B.V. would acquire a minority stake in the company, confirming a month-long rumor that the craft beer company was on the hunt for an investment partner. Terms of the deal, including the amount and the specific size of the stake sold, were not disclosed.
Craft Brew Alliance (CBA) this week announced a pair of key leadership changes, including the departure of chief financial officer Joseph Vanderstelt and the appointment of João Paulo Falcão Vieira, vice president of Anheuser-Busch’s (A-B) North American Zone, to its board of directors.
Free State Craft Beer Delivery founder Dan Kennedy is the first to admit that he didn’t start a traditional beer wholesaling business. “I really started a trucking company,” he told Brewbound. Kennedy, who left a career as an events director at Goucher College in Towson, Maryland, to pursue entrepreneurship and a passion for beer, is the brains behind upstart Free State.
Three of the largest U.S. beer companies dropped a slate of new advertisements this week in an effort to capture the attention of soccer fans tuning into the 2018 World Cup. Anheuser-Busch InBev, the world’s largest brewer, rolled out three new medieval-themed commercials for Bud Light, one of which was created for the World Cup and produced in both English and Spanish.
