The word of Brewbound Live 2024 could arguably be “focus,” which was highlighted in the panel discussion that kicked off Day 2 of the business conference last month in Marina del Rey, California.
The importance of focus to all tiers of bev-alc was highlighted by Whole Foods Market principal category merchant for beer Mary Guiver, Deschutes Brewery CEO Peter Skrbek and Bump Williams Consulting (BWC) VP of business development and portfolio strategies Brian “BK” Krueger.
One of the leading pieces of feedback BWC clients have received following annual business planning meetings with their distributor and retailer partners has been that they “need to be focused,” according to Krueger. The common narrative is in response to suppliers overextending their portfolios and teams to try to keep up with changing consumer demands and new trends.
“You can’t do that in a time where the shelf set and available points of distribution are shrinking, [and] where consumers are fatigued of new, new, new, at least in the beer side,” Skrbek agreed.
“And to be clear, we’re equally guilty of this historically, and we’re correcting it,” he added. “When you do that, you’re just diluting the ability to execute effectively.”
Deschutes has re-evaluated how it approaches its business, and is going into 2025 with two priorities, consisting of three total brands: Its non-alcoholic (NA) beer, led by Fresh Squeezed NA IPA and Patagonia Kernza NA Organic Beer, and its core offering Fresh Squeezed IPA. The Oregon-based craft brewery has also significantly cut its total SKUs from 572 two years ago, to now 308, with more cuts expected. Deschutes also won’t be launching anything new in 2025.
A more focused approach is being rewarded at retail, according to Guiver.
“The brands that are showing growth are the ones that are focused – that is a pattern that we see across the board, especially as a very craft-centric retailer,” Guiver said.
“We’re seeing the winds finally be at our back for craft,” she continued. “The pattern that you see that’s helping them accomplish that growth – and it’s not just a little bit, it’s double-digit growth – is because they’re the brands who are focused. They listen to our requests for focus, and they show up with a plan that’s focused.”
“We also need to realize that we’re just not fighting a beer battle here or against spirits and RTD [ready-to-drink],” Krueger added. “We’re also fighting energy drinks. We’re fighting soft drinks. We’re fighting flavored water. All of that is on the retailer’s mind, and we need to be realistic that a lot of times there’s a better story for some of those other categories.”
Watch the full replay above to hear more insights from the panel, including the other keys to “focus” beyond portfolio cuts, why footprint retrenching is “not a sign of weakness,” and how dairy could be a threat to cold box space.
And watch other talks and presentations from Brewbound Live here.