Anheuser-Busch InBev (A-B) outperformed the U.S. beer industry in the first quarter of 2026, the company reported Tuesday. In the U.S., A-B’s Q1 depletions (sales to retailers) increased 0.3% year-over-year (YoY), which the company credited to “beer and beyond beer share gains and an improved industry.” Shipments (sales to wholesalers) declined 3.2%.
Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits’ ambitions for Anheuser-Busch InBev’s portfolio aren’t limited to New York. The wine and spirits juggernaut has struck another deal for a red network distributor, this time for the assets of Eagle Rock Distributing Co. in Colorado.
A pair of big red network distribution deals were announced in the last 24 hours. Anheuser-Busch InBev has agreed to purchase the distribution rights of its brands, as well as “certain craft/NA brands,” from Advance Beverage Company in Bakersfield, California. Meanwhile, Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits inked a deal for independent A-B distributor Clare Rose on Long Island.
New Belgium Brewing is investing $20 million in Bell’s Brewery’s Kalamazoo production facility and Eccentric Cafe taproom, Crain’s Grand Rapids Business reported.
In a tectonic shift in the distribution landscape, Anheuser-Busch InBev announced plans to sell its wholly owned distributor (WOD) in New York City to Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits.
Jim Koch on Boston Beer’s potential internal CEO candidates: Allagash’s new taproom; Erik Ellington’s NA beer; and more headlines.
Brand extensions of some of Anheuser-Busch InBev’s (A-B) top brands helped the company outpace U.S. beer industry trends in Q2, the company shared Thursday in its quarterly earnings release.
Nice weather and ideal timing helped boost beer’s performance over Fourth of July weekend, producing “surprisingly strong trends,” according to distributors surveyed by Goldman Sachs.
Halfway through 2025, craft and beyond beer are the biggest share losers in both the on- and off-premise, according to data shared during Fintech and the National Beer Wholesalers Association’s (NBWA) quarterly webinar.
The notion of dessert is threaded throughout this year’s Bourbon County Brand Stout (BCBS) lineup from Anheuser-Busch InBev-owned Goose Island.
The state excise tax rate on beer in Missouri has been cut by two-thirds. Gov. Mike Kehoe signed into law House Bill 1041 on Thursday, which set the excise tax rate at $0.62 per barrels for all malt-based alcoholic beverages produced at Missouri breweries, a drop of $1.24 per barrel from the previous rate of $1.86. The new rate is the lowest beer excise tax in the nation.
“Weakness continues” in beverage-alcohol off-premise trends, according to the latest weekly report from market research firm Circana. Total bev-alc scan data continued to decline in dollars (-3.3%) and volume (-4.8%) for the one-week period ending June 8.
The legal sparring between exporter CraftCanTravel LLC (CCT) and Anheuser-Busch InBev (A-B) continues. CraftCanTravel sued A-B in federal court last year, alleging that the brewer infringed upon its exclusive rights to export the former Craft Brew Alliance (CBA) portfolio of brands, including Kona Brewing, “to most of the world.”
Anheuser-Busch InBev (A-B) has revealed its new energy drink line Phorm Energy, as the beer giant seeks to make its presence felt in a category that has become increasingly important, and unstable, to beer distributors in recent years. Using the tagline “We do the Work,” Phorm Energy aims to deliver “energy, hydration and focus” through a zero-sugar, four-SKU line of 16 oz cans in four flavors.
Volume at craft breweries outside of the Brewers Association’s (BA) definition of small and independent declined 4% on a comparable basis, to 6.752 million barrels, in 2024, the trade group reported in the May/June edition of The New Brewer magazine.
Distributors have become increasingly more pessimistic about beer. But how do they feel about the biggest suppliers and their outlooks for 2025? Investment banking firm Jefferies asked this question in its latest beer distributor survey, which represented portfolios from Tilray (60% of respondents), Constellation (55%), Anheuser-Busch InBev [A-B] (50%), Molson Coors (50%), Boston Beer (40%) and more.
Beverage-alcohol’s embrace of flavor and craft beer’s shifting distribution trends were among spotlighted issues during last week’s Beer Marketer’s Insights Spring Conference in Chicago. Leaders from BeatBox Beverages, Boston Beer Company, Atomic Brands, Columbia Distributing and Anheuser-Busch InBev (A-B) shared where their business and the beer category is heading. Here are a few soundbites from the conference.
