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.
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.
Dogfish Head’s canned cocktails are gaining traction in the fast-growing spirits-based, ready-to-drink (RTD) canned cocktail market. Dollar sales of the Dogfish Head brand family (+92.3%) are outpacing the overall segment (+56.5%), according to NielsenIQ total U.S. all off-premise data, shared by Bump Williams Consulting.
Topo Chico’s fated move into hard spirits is coming in 2023, via Molson Coors. On the heels of the fast-growing Topo Chico Hard Seltzer brand, Molson Coors will launch a spirit-based version of Topo Chico in key markets, such as the southwest and southeast and parts of the Midwest.
U.S. brewers shipped an estimated 14.6 million barrels of beer in August 2022, a 2.4% increase compared to August 2021, according to the Beer Institute (BI), citing domestic tax paid estimates from the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB).
The question of when Molson Coors’ wholesaler partners would be able to use Yellowstone branding on point-of-sale items for Coors Banquet was finally answered during last week’s convention in Nashville. The answer: today (September 26).
The main stage show at Molson Coors’ 2022 distributor convention officially kicked off earlier this week with company leaders sharing how the revitalization plan launched three years ago is working. Molson Coors CMO Michelle St. Jacques gave a high-energy speech, while channeling the wisdom of a Nashville icon, Dolly Parton.
As Molson Coors leaders gather in Nashville this week for the company’s annual distributor convention, union workers at the Milwaukee production facility are picketing the lack of a three-year contract extension and threatening to strike, WDJT Milwaukee reported.
Even with up to 500,000 barrels of beyond beer capacity coming online next year, Sierra Nevada’s priorities heading into 2023 are continuing to fuel the growth of Hazy Little Thing and strengthening the iconic Pale Ale brand, company leaders recently shared with Brewbound.
