Craft beer industry news.
In Japan, some of the country’s oldest sake brewers are eagerly awaiting a decision next month on their bid for the rice wine to win recognition as a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage, a commendation reflecting the depth to which the beverage is tied to national pride and tradition. Other ambitious brewers, meanwhile, are just as eager to buck tradition altogether.
A-B Believes in the Strength of Total Portfolio; A Round With PR Expert Kevin York; BI: October Beer Supply Nearly Flat; Massachusetts’ Redemption Rock to Close; CinBev to Acquire Taft’s Brewing; Yuengling Adds Illinois; and Craft Gains Share of On-Premise Dollars.
There are four “winds of change” impacting consumers’ bev-alc purchasing decisions, and Anheuser-Busch InBev (A-B) believes it has the brands to speak to all four of those trends, according to A-B U.S. chief commercial officer Kyle Norrington.
When is a marketing strategy not a marketing strategy? Can social media alone sustain a brewery? What makes public relations different from other tactics in the marketing toolkit? Kevin York, founder of the eponymous craft beer-centric communications agency, tells it all after a decade in business.
Brown-Forman, the leading exporter of U.S. spirits to the world, beat analysts’ expectations in its latest quarterly earnings report, thanks to a jump in demand from its more premium whiskies. But the president and CEO of the Jack Daniels Whiskey maker cautioned that with potential tariffs looming it was facing “so many potential scenarios and unknowns.”
Total U.S. beer supply was nearly flat in October, after state shipments and domestic tax paids rebounded and increased volume versus October 2023, according to the Beer Institute (BI) in the trade group’s latest round of economic reports.
Spindrift is in advanced talks to be acquired by a private equity firm for north of $650 million, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.
The total beer category lost the most share of overall beverage dollars at off-premise retailers year-to-date through late September, according to NIQ data shared by Bump Williams Consulting (BWC). Beer – which includes flavored malt beverages (FMB), hard seltzer and hard cider – lost -0.5 sharepoints for the 39-week period ending September 28.
The Brewbound team returns from Thanksgiving breaks to discuss the pre-turkey day news dump, including Molson Coors’ agreement to purchase the intellectual property of Cruz Blanca and why the Mexican-inspired, Chicago-produced brand is now on the clock.
Constellation Brands its weighing its options in the face of proposed 25% tariffs on goods imported from Mexico and Canada under the incoming second Trump administration. CFO Garth Hankinson discussed the company’s position during a fireside chat with managing director Dara Mohsenian at the Morgan Stanley Consumer and Retail Conference on Tuesday.
Draft beer recorded its third consecutive year-over-year (YoY) volume decline on Thanksgiving Eve, according to on-premise, draft-centric data firm BeerBoard.
Molson Coors measures Blue Moon against the total industry, not just craft, CEO Gavin Hattersley explained Tuesday during the Morgan Stanley Global Consumer and Retail Conference. “We don’t measure it on craft because craft’s really struggling at the moment. And so we’re measuring success with Blue Moon on the total industry,” Hattersley said. “And on… Read more »
Brewbound Insiders are reading details of Constellation Brands’ latest divestment in its wine and spirits division, with the sale of Svedka Vodka to Sazerac. Insiders are also diving into the latest weekly scan data from Circana; reading about the closure of Cisco’s Portsmouth taproom; and catching up on several job changes.
Constellation Brands has reached an agreement with spirits giant Sazerac to offload its Svedka Vodka brand, the company announced today. The sale, which is expected to close “in the coming months,” is part of Constellation’s plan to premiumize its wine and spirits business, which have not kept pace with the gains its beer portfolio of Mexican imports has delivered.
