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.
The last couple of weeks are a bit of a blur, and how couldn’t they be when you’re running the post-Labor Day acronym gauntlet: NACS, GABF, NBWA, BI, AFWB. OK, I missed one of those but that’s why Jess Infante is this team’s road warrior and deserves all the airline status. A weekly reminder of the top storylines of the week seems in order.
U.S. grocery chain giants Kroger and Albertsons are involved in merger discussions, which would create the largest supermarket chain in the U.S., Reuters reported.
Government affairs leaders from the largest U.S. beer manufacturers are gearing up for battles with the liquor industry over tax equalization in several states in 2023.
The first goal of incoming Beer Institute (BI) chairman Anheuser-Busch CEO and North American zone president Brendan Whitworth is to continue delineating the differences between beer and hard liquor. In his address to the annual meeting of the trade group representing the country’s largest brewers, Whitworth highlighted three goals for his term leading the BI… Read more »
Nadine Sarwat, equity research analyst and director of European and American alcoholic beverages at Bernstein Autonomous LLP, shared why she doesn’t believe PepsiCo’s Blue Cloud Distribution poses a threat to traditional beer wholesalers. Plus, Sierra Nevada’s Ellie Preslar talks e-premise and Troy Aikman touts Eight.
Five months after the departure of Jim McGreevy, the Beer Institute (BI) has named its next president and CEO. The trade group today announced the appointment of Brian Crawford, the executive vice president of government affairs for the American Hotel and Lodging Association (AHLA), as its next leader.
If resilience was the theme of 2021 for the National Beer Wholesalers Association (NBWA) and its members, adaptability was the theme for 2022, CEO and president Craig Purser and chairman of the board Peter Heimark said today, kicking off the NBWA’s 85th Annual Convention in Chicago. In 2022, beer distributors battled inflation, fuel costs, supply… Read more »
Wholesalers’ fourth category frustrations finally boiled over late last week, as Blue Ridge Beverage Company and Premium Distributors, a Reyes Beer Division subsidiary, filed a complaint with the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority against Boston Beer Company over its appointment of PepsiCo’s Blue Cloud Distribution as the distributor of Hard MTN Dew.
Craft brewing has grown up and that’s OK. “Like it or not, we’re not the new kids on the block; we’re not revolutionaries, like we were in the beginning,” Boston Beer Company founder Jim Koch said.
Constellation Brands’ beer business reported double-digit shipment and net sales growth along with nearly 9% depletions growth in the second quarter of its 2023 fiscal year.
The Reyes Beer Division continues to wheel and deal. Just one day after revealing a 16 million case deal for Capitol Wright Distributing in Austin, Texas, the largest beer wholesaler in the U.S. announced today an agreement to acquire Paradise Beverage in Hawaii, the company’s 12th market. The transaction is slated to close in early December.
Cincinnati-headquartered Rhinegeist Brewery has hired former Stone Brewing VP of sales Adam Bankovich as its chief commercial officer (CCO).
The Reyes Beer Division will enter Texas, its 11th market, with the acquisition of Capitol Wright Distributing LLC. Financial terms were not disclosed but the transaction is expected to close in December.
New Belgium’s Voodoo Ranger Juice Force is the No. 1 craft beer launch ever, New Belgium CEO Steve Fechheimer shared during a recent update following the company’s wholesaler meetings. Along with Voodoo Ranger, New Belgium’s core four for 2023 includes Fat Tire, Bell’s Two Hearted Ale and Oberon.
