The bar and restaurant industry will find little comfort in the most recent report from Nielsen CGA. With colder temperatures around the country threatening to put a damper on outdoor dining and COVID-19 cases on the rise in the majority of states, about half of all adults say they have no intention of returning to dining or drinking outside their homes soon, the on-premise arm of market research firm Nielsen found.
Craft brewers’ sales improved during the third quarter of 2020, but are still far off from where they were in 2019, according to a new analysis by Brewers Association (BA) chief economist Bart Watson. Combining several datasets tracking on-premise sales, Watson found that Q3 sales fell 22% below baseline, a marked improvement over Q2’s 45% below baseline.
Tourists and a pandemic don’t mix. Salem, Massachusetts-based Notch Brewing announced Wednesday that it would close its biergarten for on-site service beginning Friday through November 1, as its hometown faces a deluge of tourists in the lead up to Halloween.
In its first analysis of the U.S. packaging industry, financial services firm Credit Suisse said its medium-term outlook of the industry is “bullish.” The can industry is being strained from several directions, as the COVID-19 pandemic’s restrictions on the on-premise channel has shifted a chunk of Americans’ beer consumption from draft to cans and new product introductions, including those in the $3.49 billion hard seltzer industry, lean heavily toward cans. Additionally, can production has slowed over several years.
Founders of three of Massachusetts’ oldest craft breweries shared insights and advice for the next generation of Bay State craft brewers during the virtual Mass Brewers Guild conference earlier this month. “Expect to work your ass off,” said Jim Koch, founder of Boston Beer.
Ballast Point Brewing Company today announced the indefinite closure of its Chicago brewpub, effective October 24, due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
This week on Brewbound Frontlines, an expert panel of marketers will discuss how they have changed the way breweries communicate with consumers during the first seven months of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Rob Tod, the founder of Portland, Maine-based Allagash Brewing, cautioned attendees of the virtual Mass Brewers Guild conference that they’ll need to lean on each other for support. “Are we going into a time of headwinds and has COVID accelerated it? I would argue yes,” Tod said. “But I would argue also that it’s more important than ever to stick together right now.”
In the midst of the pandemic when many other brewers’ futures seem uncertain, Fiddlehead Brewing has announced a $6 million expansion project that will triple its capacity and help the Shelburne, Vermont-based brewery add three new states to its footprint.
After a well-received launch, Harpoon Brewery will stagger sales of its seasonal collaboration variety pack with Dunkin’ Donuts, due to a short supply of cans. “Demand for this package has significantly exceeded expectations,” Dan Kenary, CEO of Harpoon’s parent company, Mass. Bay Brewing Company, told Brewbound.
When California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a stay-at-home order and shut down on-premise bars and restaurants to stop the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in mid-March, 92% of San Diego-based Societe Brewing’s business was draft beer. The shutdown stopped the 1,000 tap handles pouring Societe’s beer at 700 San Diego restaurants and bars from flowing. Societe, like so many other small craft breweries, was left scrambling to figure out how to continue on.
If Summer 2019 was the season hard seltzer found its footing, Summer 2020 was the year it blasted off. Off-premise dollar sales of hard seltzer between the Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends this year reached $1.75 billion — a full $1.1 billion more than the same period last year, according to market research firm Nielsen.
The ongoing economic pain points caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent shut downs of on-premise retailers have led to severe consequences for the beer industry and adjacent businesses.
