Jessica Infante joined Brewbound in 2019 after nearly a decade in a variety of marketing roles in the craft beer industry. Prior to that, she was a daily newspaper reporter at the Jersey Shore. Jess holds a bachelor’s degree in magazine journalism from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University and a master’s degree in integrated marketing communication from Emerson College. She is a certified Cicerone and lives in Salem, Massachusetts.
Convenience stores were a bright spot for the beer category in 2023, with dollar sales in the channel up +5.2% for the first 11 months of the year, according to market research firm Circana. To share insights on how suppliers can make inroads in the channel, Extra Mile Convenience Stores category manager for alcoholic beverages Michelle Abdollah and Bump Williams Consulting VP of analytics and insights Dave Williams shared the stage at Brewbound Live.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Retail Services & Systems, Inc., parent company of national bev-alc retailer Total Wine & More, have finalized a settlement in their dispute over the chain’s participation in the FTC’s investigation of one of its distributor partners.
Craft beer has entered “no to negative growth territory,” Brewers Association (BA) chief economist Bart Watson said during a year-end webinar last week. “We were in double-digit growth as recently as 2014, 2015, and then we moved into kind of a more developed, slow, single-digit growth rate,” Watson said. “COVID hit, and we had the worst year in craft history in 2020 with a partial bounce back in 2021.
Nearly 5,000 Teamsters members across Anheuser-Busch InBev’s U.S. facilities have voted to authorize a strike if a new contract is not in place when the current one expires on February 29.
FIFCO USA-owned Seagram’s Escapes is refreshing its brand family in 2024. Seagram’s Escapes Refreshers will roll out in 15 markets next year, the company announced today. The 5% ABV flavored malt beverage (FMB) is sweetened with cane sugar and fruit juice, according to a press release.
This year will be the first, other than 2020, in which independent breweries’ volume has declined in the modern era of craft beer, according to the Brewers Association’s (BA) 2023 Year in Beer report.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Retail Services & Systems, Inc. (RSSI), parent company of national bev-alc retailer Total Wine & More, have reached a tentative agreement in the FTC’s civil investigative demand (CID) against the chain, according to a Law360 report.
Bell’s Brewery flagship Two Hearted IPA is getting some company on shelves. The Comstock, Michigan-headquartered brewery has elevated Hazy Hearted IPA (7.5% ABV) to nationwide distribution and Big Hearted IPA (9.5% ABV) to year-round distribution in select markets.
Lafayette, Colorado-headquartered Westbound & Down (W&D) has acquired Aspen Brewing and Capitol Creek Brewery from High Country Brewing LLC. The deal, which closed December 1, includes Aspen’s 7,000-barrel capacity production facility and both breweries’ brewpubs.
Wholesalers’ beer ordering entered expansion territory in November after four months of contraction, indicating “a more neutral stance for the industry,” according to the National Beer Wholesalers Association’s (NBWA) latest Beer Purchasers’ Index (BPI). The BPI’s November reading for total beer was 51, a three-point month-over-month (MoM) increase from October’s reading of 48. A reading greater than 50 indicates expansion, while less than 50 indicates contraction.
New Jersey craft brewers are reeling after Gov. Phil Murphy’s conditional veto of a unanimously passed bill that would reform the Garden State’s restrictive conditions for sales and operations at craft brewery taprooms.
Huntersville, North Carolina-based D9 Brewing, its co-founders and its parent company Community Brewing Ventures are facing a lawsuit filed by SouthState Bank, National Association, which claims the defendants have breached their contract with the bank.
Boston Beer Company executives made “inactionable statement[s] of corporate optimism” about sales of Truly Hard Seltzer during its Q1 and Q2 earnings calls in 2021, negating a lawsuit and subsequent appeal filed by investors who alleged the company misled them about the brand and company’s performance. A panel of three Second Circuit judges upheld the… Read more »
