Boston Beer Company last week named former Moet Hennessy executive Jonathan Potter as its chief marketing officer, a newly created position for the country’s second-largest craft beer producer. Potter, who will officially join Boston Beer in August, most recently worked as the managing director for Moet Hennessy’s Chandon California division and had previously served as that company’s CMO and executive vice president between 2012 and 2015.
In this week’s edition of Last Call: Barnes & Noble, the last remaining big box bookstore chain in the U.S., is turning to food and beverage — including beer — to boost sales; Russian River Brewing Company closes escrow on a 15 acre property, located in Sonoma County, where it plans to build an 85,000 sq. ft. brewery and restaurant.
Sales of craft beer are still slowing, according to the latest data from market research firm IRI Worldwide. Craft volume sales across the firm’s measured multi-outlet and convenience channels (MULC — which comprise grocery, drug, club, dollar, mass-merchandiser, Walmart and military stores), are up just 6.2 percent year-to-date through June 12. And over the latest four-week period, also ending June 12, volume gains are even slower — craft sales are up just 5 percent.
A new startup promising craft brewers the ability to lower operating expenses by helping their companies gain access to discounted raw materials and valuable industry information is preparing to launch this fall.
Piero Rodriguez, one of the co-founders of Miami’s M.I.A. Beer Company, died in an auto accident early Sunday morning, according to the Miami Herald. Rodriguez, 34, had reportedly worked late Saturday night and lost control of his car on his drive home.
Sweetwater Brewing Company today announced plans to expand distribution into a number of new markets. Beginning this month, the Atlanta-based craft brewery will enter five new markets in Tennessee, six additional counties in Ohio and two new regions of Virginia. Sweetwater will also broaden its reach in New Jersey next month when it adds distribution on the Jersey Shore via Shore Point Distributing Company.
Following a major craft beer distribution shakeup in Florida earlier this year, Bell’s Brewery today announced changes to its wholesalers in the northern and central parts of the state. The Michigan-based brewery’s beers are now being distributed through Cavalier Distributing Company, it said via a press release.
It took about 14 months, but a California judge has finally tossed aside a class action lawsuit against MillerCoors LLC that alleged the beer company was deceptively brewing and marketing its Blue Moon Brewing line of craft products. U.S. District Court Judge Gonzalo Curiel granted MillerCoors’ motion to dismiss the case after the company argued that Evan Parent, a homebrewer, beer aficionado and plaintiff listed in the suit, was unsuccessful in demonstrating that MillerCoors had misled consumers through its advertising and positioning of Blue Moon as a craft beer.
CBA Taps Hopworks’ Tom Bleigh as new Innovation Brewmaster; DBI Appoints CDC Executive as New COO; The Bruery’s Benjamin Weiss to Depart on June 30; Great Lakes’ Newest Key Hires Planning for the Future.
The brewmaster at Stone Brewing will depart the organization this month after 10 years with the San Diego craft brewery, the company announced today. Mitch Steele, who literally wrote the book on how to brew the most popular craft beer style in America, the IPA, is leaving the brewery effective June 30, a spokesperson with the company confirmed to Brewbound.
A growing number of craft beer drinkers would describe themselves as being “health-conscious” and are interested in striking a balance between regular alcohol consumption and routine exercise, according to a new survey jointly developed by Nielsen, The Harris Poll and Brewbound. According to the study — which surveyed nearly 1,400 respondents who drink alcoholic beverages several times per month — 60 percent of millennial craft beer drinkers (those who consume at least one beer per month) said they only drink alcohol on the weekends, while 44 percent of millennial monthly craft drinkers said they take time off from drinking entirely in order to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
In this week’s last call: A-B promotes Patchogue in a new Blue Point Brewing campaign; Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Las Vegas to open Nevada’s first Goose Island pub; Buffalo Wild Wings tests the waters on to go beer sales; Melvin Brewing Company plans a brewery expansion in Washington and Gov. Kasich signs House Bill 37
Two beverage industry titans are teaming up to enter the $1 billion ready-to-drink premium bottled tea segment. On Thursday, Starbucks and Anheuser-Busch InBev announced a partnership to manufacture and distribute a ready-to-drink bottled tea under the Starbucks-owned Teavana brand, which Starbucks acquired in 2012 for $620 million. The product is slated to launch in the first half of 2017.
With the U.S. Department of Justice on the verge of green-lighting Anheuser-Busch InBev’s proposed $106 billion takeover of SABMiller, according to Bloomberg, Brewers Association CEO Bob Pease has penned a New York Times opinion piece about the potential repercussions of the “MegaBrew” merger. In his op-ed, Pease expressed concerns about A-B InBev’s ability to “stifle consumer choice” and “choke off America’s beer renaissance,” by restricting access to market.
