3 Up, 3 Down with 3 Tier Beverages is a quarterly insights series available to Brewbound Insiders, via the Chicago-headquartered, bev-alc-focused consulting and data firm.
A group of investors has acquired Willie’s Superbrew after a tumultuous several months for the Boston-based hard seltzer brand. The acquiring group, Superbrew Acquisition Corporation (SAC), is led by Amos Beason, managing director of Charlotte, North Carolina-based Seward Capita
Ashland Hard Seltzer is on pace to double its volume in 2022, with expectations to exceed 500,000 cases (around 36,300 barrels).
Light lager (+9%) and American lager (+19%) both grew share of sales on e-commerce alcohol delivery platform Drizly over Labor Day weekend compared to the holiday weekend in 2021, the company reported.
Boston Beer Company is launching a multimillion-dollar, multi-channel marketing campaign to support Truly Hard Seltzer, which it recently reformulated with real fruit juice. In the new ad campaign, Boston Beer, which has leaned on singer Dua Lipa in previous Truly ads, has instead turned to fruit flies to help promote the reformulated hard seltzer brand.
Sonic Hard Seltzer is now the official hard seltzer of the Big 12 Conference with a three-year contract, the brand announced today.
For the 52 weeks ending July 16, the combined malt- and spirits-based hard seltzer segment reached $4.263 billion, according to Jefferies equity research managing director Kevin Grundy. In the last four weeks, spirits-based seltzer’s share of the business has reached 9.1%. Malt- and sugar-based hard seltzers account for 90.9% of the segment – and their sales are declining.
As the largest hard seltzer brands cycle tough year-over-year comps, regional seltzer brands such as Boulevard Brewing Company’s Quirk Hard Seltzer are gaining traction in their home markets.
Total beer off-premise spending reached $1.104 billion for the week ending July 3, marking the category’s highest sales week of the year so far. Only the weeks that included July 4 in 2020 and 2021 saw stronger beer sales than this year’s holiday week.
Goldman Sachs’ pessimism for Boston Beer Company’s 2022 sales performance and the company’s ability to reach its 2022 guidance continues, with analyst Bonnie Herzog downgrading Boston Beer to a “sell” rating in the financial services firm’s June Beverage Bytes retailer survey.
Cowen is lowering its fiscal year 2023 estimates for Boston Beer Company, analyst Vivien Azer wrote in a report today, noting the financial services firm has become “increasingly skeptical” that Boston Beer will meet its guidance of +4%-+10% shipment and depletion growth.
In the on-premise channel, bars and restaurants have earned more than $12,000 on average from the sale of cocktails in the first quarter of 2022, compared to the 12 weeks that ended October 22, reported CGA, which focuses on on-premise retail occasions.
Ball Corp., the world’s largest aluminum beverage can manufacturer, has partnered with the investment firm Manna Capital Partners to create an aluminum can sheet rolling mill and recycling center in Los Lunas, New Mexico.
Anheuser-Busch InBev’s beyond beer division is organizing itself around four priorities: hard seltzers, Cutwater Spirits, Nütrl Vodka Seltzer and Ghost Energy, beyond beer business unit president Fabricio Zonzini shared during Beer Marketer’s Insights’ spring conference in Chicago last week.
The majority of distributors (70%) are seeing better growth for beer this spring, respondents told financial services firm Jefferies in a survey published today.
