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.
The open rate of bars and restaurants has hit its highest point since on-premise research firm BeerBoard began tracking the pandemic’s effect on the hospitality industry two years ago. “After two consecutive periods at 94%, the open rate (locations open and pouring beer) ticked up to 95% on the weekend,” the company reported.
Boston-headquartered fruited hard seltzer maker Willie’s Superbrew has laid off most of its staff and is considering a sale of the brand, according to Good Beer Hunting.
Waterbird Spirits, the Charlottesville, Virginia-headquartered spirits maker, which specializes in canned ready-to-drink (RTD) cocktails, is the first beverage-alcohol brand in the country to use resealable lids on 24 oz. single-serve cans, effectively opening up the convenience store channel more widely to spirits-based RTDs.
Constellation Brands executive vice president and beer division chair Paul Hetterich died yesterday at age 59 following “a series of health issues in recent years,” the company announced to wholesalers today.
Two weeks after a jury sided with Stone Brewing in its trial against Molson Coors, the Escondido, California-headquartered craft brewer is tangled in another trademark infringement lawsuit – this time as the defendant. The founders of Laurelwood Brewing have bought back the distribution and brand rights of the Portland, Oregon-based company from Eugene, Oregon-based Ninkasi Brewing, The Oregonian reported Wednesday.
National Beer Wholesalers Association (NBWA) members gathered in Washington, D.C., this week to meet with members of Congress in person for the first time in more than two years as part of the trade group’s annual legislative conference.
Constellation Brands’ beer business recorded an +11% increase in net sales growth, to $6.75 billion, for the company’s 2022 full fiscal year. FY 2022 marked the company’s 12th consecutive year of volume growth, with +8.8% shipments (sales to wholesalers) growth and +8.9% depletions (sales to retailers) growth – amounting to an additional 30 million case equivalents, CEO Bill Newlands said during a conference call with investors.
Modern Times Beer’s bank has “commenced litigation” that is expected to “result in a court-ordered receivership sale” of the San Diego-headquartered craft brewery, according to a blog post on Modern Times’ website.
Firestone Walker chief sales officer David Macon stepped down last week after eight years with the Paso Robles, California-headquartered craft brewery.
BrewDog has rejected a proposal from Hand & Heart, the workplace consulting firm that was attempting to manage a reconciliation program between the Scottish craft brewer and current and former employees who felt wronged by its allegedly toxic work environment.
San Diego-headquartered JuneShine released its first commercial campaign today, promoting its recently launched ready-to-drink, spirits-based canned cocktails with the tagline of “Dodge the Sugar.” Beer buyers’ behavior has “continued to revert to pre-pandemic trends” for the third consecutive month, according to the National Beer Wholesalers Association’s (NBWA) March Beer Purchasers’ Index (BPI).
What propelled the craft beer industry to nearly 9,000 breweries over several decades isn’t volume growth, distribution expansion or heaps of medals, but the stories of its people, according to Maine Beer Company co-founder Dan Kleban. Kleban delivered a keynote address Thursday at the New England Brew Summit, hosted by the Maine Brewers’ Guild centered on the theme of standing out in a crowded marketplace.
E-commerce beverage-alcohol platform Provi has filed a complaint against Southern Glazer’s Wine and Spirits and Republic National Distributing Company (RNDC) – the country’s two largest wine and spirits distributors – alleging that the companies have unlawfully stifled the growth of its platform.
A bill introduced in the New Jersey state Senate last month proposes the creation of a new tax class for flavored malt beverages (FMBs). The bill would tax FMBs at $4.40 per gallon, far closer to New Jersey’s rate for distilled spirits ($5.50 per gallon) than for beer ($0.12 per gallon).
