The Worldwide Brewing Alliance represents more than 80% of the world’s beer production. President and CEO Justin Kissinger and advisor Dan Kopman join the Brewbound Podcast to discuss the global trade group’s mission, as well as the challenges facing the beer category, which has lost 12% share of total ethanol to spirits over the last two decades.
As the regulatory environment has loosened for spirits makers, they’ve gained greater market access.
“There were differentiated alcohol policies between beer and hard liquor that date back hundreds of years, and in the U.S. date back to Prohibition,” Kopman said. “And there was a reason for these things. So why did policymakers coming out of Prohibition want to treat beer differently to hard liquor? First and foremost, they’re made very differently. The economic basis for them is very different. The employment platform is vastly different. It costs a lot more money and takes a lot more people to deliver beer to consumers than it does hard liquor.”
“What you can see in the story in the U.S. in terms of share shift, what I think you can see in other environments is the regulatory environment that you operate in matters and it can influence what can happen in the business,” Kissinger added.
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