Costa Rica-headquartered FIFCO today named beverage industry veteran Rich Andrews as the next CEO of FIFCO USA. Andrews will supplant Adrian Lachowski, whose planned exit from the company was announced last week.

With just one month left in 2019, off-premise beer dollar and volume sales appear poised to finish in the black. Through the first 11 months of 2019, off-premise beer category dollar sales in multi-outlet and convenience stores tracked by market research firm IRI are up 5.2%, to nearly $34.5 billion, while volume sales are up 2.3%. The largest dollar sales growth in 2019 thus far has come from flavored malt beverages, including hard seltzers.

Beer, wine and spirits companies are a signature away from another year of federal excise tax relief. The U.S. Senate today passed a tax extender package that includes a one-year extension of the tax relief in the Craft Beverage Modernization and Tax Reform Act (CMBTRA) that was slated to expire at the end of 2019.

New Belgium Brewing Company’s employee owners have voted in favor of selling the company to Kirin-owned Lion Little World Beverages despite concerns over the Japanese beer giant’s business dealings in Myanmar.

Leaders in the House Ways and Means and Senate Finance committees reached a tax deal late Monday that includes a one-year extension of the federal excise tax relief for alcohol producers and importers.

FIFCO USA CEO Adrian Lachowski will exit the company on January 15, 2020, Costa Rica-headquartered global beverage company FIFCO (Florida Ice and Farm Co.) announced Wednesday. FIFCO expects to announce Lachowski’s successor in mid-January.

Nancy Palmer has left her post as the executive director of the Georgia Craft Brewers Guild to become the director of government affairs at the Georgia Chamber of Commerce. Palmer, the first woman to receive the Brewers Association’s F.X. Matt Defense of the Industry Award, started at the Georgia Chamber of Commerce in November. She had served as executive director of the guild since being promoted to the post in July 2014.

Craft brewers are on pace for another year of low single-digit growth, the Brewers Association announced today in its annual “The Year in Beer” review. The not-for-profit trade organization representing small and independent U.S. craft breweries projects 2019 volume growth of 4%, down slightly from the 2018 number.

Canadian Cannabis company Canopy Growth Corporation announced today the appointment of David Klein as CEO, effective January 14, 2020. Meanwhile, Constellation Brands has named Garth Hankinson as Klein’s replacement.

Richard Mahoney, the chairman of the board of The Wine Group, is the lead investor in Chicagoland craft brewery Kings & Convicts’ acquisition of Ballast Point Brewing Company from Constellation Brands, according to the ChicagoTribune. Brooklyn Brewery restructures sales force.

Four years after paying $1 billion for Ballast Point Brewing Company, Constellation Brands today threw in the towel on its big craft bet, announcing an agreement to sell the San Diego craft beer brand along with “a number of its associated production facilities and brewpubs” to Kings & Convicts, a little-known Chicagoland craft brewing company.

White Claw maker Mark Anthony Brands plans to spend $385 million — $135 million more than the previously projected $250 million — to build production facilities in New Jersey and at a still-undisclosed location in the western United States, founder and CEO Anthony von Mandl shared during the Beer Insights Seminar conference in New York on Monday.

Another day, another deal. One day after New Belgium announced a proposed sale to Kirin-owned Lion Little World Beverages, rollup play Artisanal Brewing Ventures (ABV) revealed an agreement to expand its portfolio beyond beer with the planned acquisition of Bold Rock Hard Cider in Nellysford, Virginia.

Another member of the old guard of craft brewing sold today when Kirin-owned Lion Little World Beverages announced a “definitive agreement” to acquire 100% of New Belgium Brewing Company in an all cash transaction.