Craft Brew Alliance

After launching exclusively in its home state of Hawaii in August 2016, Kona Brewing Company is proud to introduce its newest year-round beer, Hanalei Island IPA, to the U.S. mainland starting today in California. Hanalei Island IPA is a refreshing fruit-forward IPA created in honor of the lush Hawaiian Island of Kauai, also known as the Garden Isle, and Hawaii’s beloved classic POG juice, a blend of passionfruit, orange and guava.

Craft Brew Alliance today announced it has signed a letter of intent to purchase a 24.5 percent stake in Miami upstart Wynwood Brewing Company. The deal, which is valued at less than $30 million, is expected to close in the first quarter of 2017.

We’re less than 24 hours away from the 2016 Brewbound Session in San Diego, and it’s time to introduce our presenters and judges for Startup Brewery Challenge 7, our on-of-a-kind business pitch competition presented by Craft Brew Alliance. Six craft brewery entrepreneurs who have been on the market for two years or less will take the stage tomorrow to show off their business plans, sample one core product offering and receive immediate feedback from a panel of five expert judges.

Are you a new brewery owner? Do you want to win $5,000 and take an all-expenses-paid trip to Beervana? Interested in brewing a specialty batch of beer at the new Widmer Brothers innovation brewery? On Dec. 1, at the Brewbound Session conference in San Diego, six craft brewery entrepreneurs who have been on the market for two years or less will have an opportunity to participate in Brewbound’s one-of-a-kind business pitch competition — Startup Brewery Challenge 7, presented by Craft Brew Alliance.

Craft Brew Alliance (CBA) today released its third quarter earnings results, which were highlighted by a 12.7 percent increase in Kona Brewing shipments and a portfolio-wide net sales growth of 1.1 percent percent compared to the same period in 2015. In a press release, CEO Andy Thomas once again touted the company’s “Kona Plus” strategy — one that combines a nationwide sales effort for the Hawaiian-themed brand with a regional sales approach for strategic partners Cisco Brewers and Appalachian Mountain as well as the more established Widmer Brothers and Redhook labels.

Amid declining production at its Redhook brewery in Woodinville, Wash., Craft Brew Alliance has laid off at least a dozen of the production employees who worked at the facility, Brewbound has learned. Reached for comment, CBA chief operating officer Scott Mennen confirmed the cutbacks, but declined to say exactly how many employees were let go, saying only that it was “about half” of the brewery’s production, packaging, warehousing, maintenance and brewery operations workers.

Craft Brew Alliance’s long-term route to market in the U.S. — and perhaps its future ownership structure — became clearer this week after the publicly traded craft beer maker unveiled enhanced distribution and contract brewing agreements with its largest individual shareholder, Anheuser-Busch InBev.

Craft Brew Alliance, Inc. (CBA) (Nasdaq: BREW) and Anheuser-Busch (AB) announced today a series of new commercial agreements that expand and strengthen the companies’ long-term relationship and create new growth opportunities for both companies. The agreements include an amended and extended master distribution agreement, a new contract brewing arrangement, and a new international distribution agreement.

Craft Brew Alliance and Anheuser-Busch InBev today announced a new set of commercial agreements that will give the smaller CBA guaranteed distribution via A-B’s wholesalers in the U.S. through 2028 and expanded access to a variety of international markets as well as brewing capacity at many of the larger company’s 12 brewery locations. In a joint announcement, the two companies said the new arrangements would “expand and strengthen the companies’ long-term relationship and create new growth opportunities for both companies.”

Craft Brew Alliance has officially opened its new Widmer Brothers innovation brewery, relocating the small-batch operation from a cramped corner of Portland’s Moda Center to the company’s primary brewing facility about one mile away. First announced last April, the new innovation brewery will enable CBA to conduct research and development, experiment with emerging styles and give Widmer brewers a chance to collaborate with other food and beverage industry entrepreneurs.

Here’s a full stein of reality, courtesy of Craft Brew Alliance’s chief executive, Andy Thomas. “If we become irrelevant to consumers, we’re all doomed,” he told a crowd of 250 beer business executives and entrepreneurs who attended the June 9 Brewbound Session conference in Brooklyn.

Craft Brew Alliance (CBA) today released its second quarter earnings results, which were highlighted by a 23.9 percent increase in Kona Brewing shipments and a portfolio-wide net sales increase of 6.4 percent compared to the same period in 2015. Driven by its “Kona Plus” strategy — which prioritizes national sales of the Hawaiian-themed brand over those from Widmer, Redhook, Omission and its partner brands — CBA was able to push year-to-date shipments, depletions and net sales back to about flat following a challenging first quarter.

The Beer Institute, a Washington D.C.-based trade association representing domestic and international beer companies, has launched a new initiative asking brewers large and small to display caloric and nutritional information on individual products, packaging and websites. Calling it the “Brewers Voluntary Disclosure Initiative,” the BI is encouraging its 44 brewer and importer members – as well as more than 4,000 non-member craft breweries — to voluntarily include a serving facts statement on their products, as well as disclose ingredients on either the label or secondary packaging by 2020.

In this week’s edition of Last Call: Olde Mecklenburg Brewery embarks on a multi-million dollar expansion and launches an ad campaign; Stone Brewing taps its first Richmond-brewed beer; Appalachian Mountain Brewery updates shareholders and the Beer Institute reports import volumes through May.