Molson Coors Beverage Company

Just like the Kansas City Chiefs, draft beer also took an L in Super Bowl LIX. Draft beer volume declined -4.6% nationwide on Super Bowl Sunday, according to on-premise insights firm BeerBoard.

Total Wine & More shared its list of the top brands sold in its Kansas City and Philadelphia area stores for the Super Bowl. Home-market brand families – Boulevard in Kansas City and Surfside in Philly – topped the lists in their respective cities.

Resealable packages, smaller sizes and non-carbonated beverages are among the hot bev-alc trends Total Wine & More’s senior leadership team are watching in 2025.

Molson Coors Beverage Company is getting in on the mixer set with a new strategic partnership with Fever-Tree, taking an 8.5% minority stake in the business and granting the alcohol giant exclusive U.S. commercialization rights to the premium brand beginning February 1.

Dick and Jake Leinenkugel have gone public with their efforts to buy back their family’s namesake brewery in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, from Molson Coors, which plans to cease operations at the facility on Friday, January 17, and lay off 56 workers.

Off-premise dollar sales of craft beer declined -3.3%, to more than $4.6 billion, in 2024, according to multi-outlet grocery, mass retail and convenience store data shared by market research firm Circana.

The beer category’s sluggish summer was apparent in Molson Coors’ third quarter earnings, which the company reported last week. Net sales in the Americas declined -11%, driven by a -15.6% decline in financial volumes “and unfavorable foreign currency impacts, partially offset by favorable price and sales mix,” Molson Coors wrote in its earnings report.

Molson Coors will cease operations at the Leinenkugel’s Chippewa Falls brewery and the company’s Tenth Street Brewery in Milwaukee, effective January 17.

While beer consumers – particularly core craft fans – once cared more about brand and where a product was made, most bev-alc consumers are now prioritizing price, quality and availability, among other factors. This has caused not only a shift in how craft beer is produced and marketed (hello, contract brewing boom), but also trends in imported beer.

Molson Coors Beverage Company is bringing an innovation portfolio of 8% ABV offerings strictly for the convenience channel as part of its above premium strategy for 2025.

Molson Coors chief commercial officer Michelle St. Jacques laid out the company’s 2025 strategy in the U.S. as part of its “next chapter” as she opened the 2024 distributor convention in San Antonio Tuesday afternoon. Although the core remains a top priority, Molson Coors will put a large focus on its above premium portfolio.

As it lapped the gains made in the wake of the Bud Light boycott last year, Molson Coors recorded declines in volume and net sales during the second quarter of 2024. However, company leadership was unshaken.

Hard seltzers remain down double-digits through mid-July in Circana-tracked off-premise retailers. Hard seltzer declined -11.8% in dollars and -16.1% in volume through the rolling 52-week period ending July 14.

Molson Coors-owned Leinenkugel’s is making its flagship Summer Shandy a year-round offering. Leinenkugel’s president Tony Bugher and John Leinenkugel discuss why the move represents the company getting out of its own way, how big the brand is for its business and how they plan to support the brand in the colder months.