Anheuser-Busch InBev, the world’s largest beer maker, today reported 2017 global revenue growth of 5.1 percent even as its core beer offerings continued to suffer in the U.S. The company’s shipments to retailers declined by 3 percent in the U.S. last year, while sales to wholesalers dipped 3.5 percent. Revenues, meanwhile, declined by 2 percent domestically, despite growth of 1.5 percent on a per hectoliter basis.
After nearly three years at the helm of Uinta Brewing Company, Steve Mills has departed the Utah-based craft brewery for a smaller operation on the East Coast. Mills has been named the CEO of Maine Beer Company, which is best known for producing hop-forward ales packaged in 16.9 oz. glass bottles with white labels.
Seven months after acquiring Texas-based Uncle Billy’s Brewery, Artisanal Imports co-founder and CEO Bob Leggett has purchased the Pedernales Brewing Company brands. Financial terms of the deal, which closed at the start of the year, were not disclosed. The transaction did not include Pedernales’ Fredericksburg brewery, which former Pedernales owner Lee Hereford said is in the process of being sold to a yet-to-be-named buyer.
Ian Schuster, the founder of Bay Area-based Schubros Brewery, is attempting to raise more than $1 million via equity crowdfunding to build a brewery in Tianjin, China. To do so, Schuster has formed the San Francisco East Bay Brewing Inc. (SFEBB) holding company and he’s selling 23 percent of the company to non-accredited investors through WeFunder, a Securities and Exchange Commission-approved third-party crowdfunding portal, at $250 a share.
After spending 12 months preparing for his formal transition from president to CEO of Columbia Distributing, Chris Steffanci isn’t wasting any time making his mark. In his two months at the helm since taking the role in January, following the announcement of CEO Gregg Christiansen’s retirement in March 2016, Steffanci has overseen a period of rapid growth at Columbia, already one of the largest beverage wholesalers in the U.S.
Citing a need for better representation on legislative matters, nine New Jersey craft brewers today announced the formation of a new state trade group — the Brewers Guild of New Jersey. Many, if not all, of those breweries will not be renewing their memberships with New Jersey’s existing guild, the New Jersey Brewers Association, Brewbound… Read more »
Yet another U.S. beer company is making cuts to its workforce due to slowing sales of craft beer. New Belgium Brewing Company, and employee-owned business with production facilities in Fort Collins, Colorado, and Asheville, North Carolina, today laid off 28 employees across the production, administration, finance, human resources and IT departments.
In this week’s Last Call: More than 3,000 brewers sign up to use the Brewers Association’s independence seal; a study finds that Generation Z consumers drink less alcohol; MillerCoors announces plans to transfer all of its cider production to Milwaukee; and more news.
Seven months after announcing plans to create a national sales platform via investments in San Francisco’s 21st Amendment and Colorado’s Funkwerks, Brooklyn Brewery is readying for what it hopes will be a year of growth across all three brands. Speaking to Brewbound, Dave Duffy, Brooklyn’s vice president of business development, said the three companies have officially integrated their sales forces and “cross-trained on each other’s brands.”
Boston Beer Company yesterday reported a shipment decline of 6.2 percent in 2017, driven by shrinking sales of its Samuel Adams and Angry Orchard brands. In an earnings report released Wednesday, the country’s sixth largest beer company — which makes Samuel Adams beer, Angry Orchard Hard Cider, Twisted Tea, and Truly Spiked & Sparkling seltzers, among other products — said it shipped about 3.8 million barrels of product in 2017, compared to 4 million barrels shipped in 2016.
Massachusetts’ Wachusett Brewing has partnered with former Guinness brewmaster Fergal Murray to kick off a new set of collaboration brews that the company has dubbed the “1794 series.” Set to debut on February 23, “The Fergal Project” is a 4.5 percent stout that combines Irish malts with the same American hops used in Wachusett’s “Wally” New England IPA.
In this roundup of legal news: MillerCoors is attempting to block a former top executive from joining Constellation Brands; Bell’s loses a nearly 3-year-old trademark fight; and a federal judge is allowing a lawsuit filed by the son of Thelonious Monk against North Coast Brewing Co. to proceed.
After taking on a “considerable amount of debt” to build a $20 million secondary production facility in Virginia Beach in 2015, Green Flash Brewing founder and CEO Mike Hinkley is on the hunt for new investment. The San Diego-based craft brewery has retained SSG Capital Advisors — a boutique investment banking firm that specializes in mergers, acquisitions, restructurings and often works with “companies facing complex or challenging situations,” according to its website – to help it bring on a new partner.
Irish cider company C&C Group plc., owner of the Vermont Hard Cider Company, today announced that it will end its 2-year-old U.S. marketing and distribution agreement with Pabst Brewing on April 1. In a letter to distributors and retailers, Vermont Hard Cider — whose brands include Woodchuck, Gumption, and Wyder’s, among others — said the two companies mutually agreed to terminate the strategic partnership forged in December 2015.
