Justin Kendall provides daily coverage of the beer industry on Brewbound.com, conducts live-streamed interviews during Brewbound’s events and co-produces the Brewbound podcast. Kendall is a nearly 20-year career journalist who led alt-weekly newspapers in Kansas City, Missouri, and Des Moines, Iowa.
Chicago-based e-commerce marketplace Provi today announced the completion of a $3.5 million funding round. Provi, which aggregates distributor inventories and serves as a one-stop shop for retailers to search and place alcohol orders, has now raised $5 million via two funding rounds with an investor list that includes Hyde Park Angels, Hyde Park Venture Partners, Ludlow Ventures, and Sandalphon Capital, among others.
A lawsuit brought by two North Carolina breweries that challenges the constitutionality of the state’s distribution laws is inching toward a trial. Last Thursday, Superior Court Judge Allen Baddour denied the state’s motions to dismiss the case or send it to a three-judge panel. A trial date has not been set.
Molson Coors Brewing Co. chairman Pete Coors is grabbing headlines for the second consecutive week. Last Monday, Coors issued an “open letter” to the Brewers Association, chastising the trade group’s leaders over negative comments made about “big beer” during the annual Craft Brewers Conference. Now, Coors has scored himself an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, and he’s turned his focus toward President Donald Trump and a recently imposed 10 percent tariff on imported aluminum.
When John McDonald founded Boulevard Brewing Company in 1989, he never envisioned that the company would grow to 178,000 barrels and sell beer in 40 states. You can listen to McDonald discuss these topics, and more, on episode 111 of Taste Radio.
Nearly three years after being acquired by Anheuser-Busch InBev, Los Angeles’ Golden Road Brewing is beginning to see the advantages of being owned by the world’s largest beer manufacturer. In the last six months, Golden Road has launched its flagship Wolf Pup Session IPA nationally, and opened a pair of satellite brewpubs in California. According to market research firm IRI Worldwide’s multi-outlet and convenience (MULC) universe of stores, sales of the company’s beer have increased 100 percent through April 29.
In this week’s edition of Last Call: Another brewery files for bankruptcy; Stone seeks to dismiss MillerCoors’ counterclaims; Tree House and Jester King announce expansion plans; BrewDog and Terrapin announce new hires; and more.
The Beer Institute (BI) is forecasting U.S. beer shipments to decline between one and three percent in 2018, chief economist Michael Uhrich shared during the national trade association’s “State of the Industry” webinar today.
Calagione — along with Brooklyn Brewery VP Dave Duffy, The BWC Company director of analytics Dave Williams and Lowes Foods senior category manager Charles Slezak — discussed the evolving craft landscape and more during a panel discussion on “Retail Strategies for Craft Brewers.
Anheuser-Busch InBev today reported global revenue growth of 4.7 percent in the first quarter of 2018 even as the company’s domestic shipments and depletions decreased due to continued declines of the its flagship lager brands. A-B, the world’s largest beer manufacturer, recorded global revenue of more than $13 billion during the quarter and a gross profit of more than $8 billion. The company’s revenue per hectoliter increased 4.9 percent.
More than a month after Sonoma Beverage Works lost its investor funding and abruptly ceased operations, the assets of the Northern California cider and wine company are being liquidated. According to an April 17 notice to creditors, Sonoma Beverage Works, whose brands include Sonoma Cider and Ahoy Wines, transferred ownership of the company’s physical assets and intellectual property to Structured Solutions, a California-based liquidator, on April 7 in order to recoup creditors’ money.
In the latest edition of People Moves: Worthy Brewing hires a new CEO; Heineken shuffles its executives; and David Coors takes over at AC Golden Brewing.
In this week’s edition of Last Call: Shipyard Brewing looks to pivot in Portland; the TTB collects record offer for alleged trade practice violations; Molson Coors reports Q2 earnings; and more.
One week after being named the Brewers Association’s new diversity ambassador, Dr. J. Nikol Jackson-Beckham presented to hundreds of Craft Brewers Conference attendees about the challenges of diversifying the brewing industry. “We all want to diversify craft beer,” she said, “but why is doing this so hard?”
In today’s craft beer environment, it pays to be a startup. According to Brewers Association chief economist Bart Watson, breweries founded after 2014 are driving the majority of segment growth. Those breweries collectively added 916,000 barrels to the category in 2017, which represents growth of 52.6 percent versus 2016. Breweries founded before 2014, however, added 285,000 barrels to the craft segment and collectively grew just 1.3 percent.
