Beer Institute

Beer companies haven’t effectively marketed to women, and they’re leaving a lot of opportunity for increased sales on the table, according to Bridget Brennan, CEO of Chicago-based consulting group the Female Factor. “We can’t underestimate that there has been, from a beer industry standpoint, a 150-year head start in marketing the product to guys as a guy’s product,” she told industry stakeholders who attended the Beer Institute’s annual meeting in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, this week.

North American sales of cannabis are expected to grow to $24 billion by 2021, Jessica Lukas, vice president of consumer insights at BDS Analytics, shared during the final day of the Beer Institute’s annual meeting in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. That figure, she added, doesn’t account for a potential end to the federal ban on marijuana in the United States.

The Beer Institute (BI) unveiled a pair of surveys during the first day of the trade group’s annual meeting in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, indicating public support for many industry issues as well as apathy from young drinkers. In his opening remarks, BI president and CEO Jim McGreevy shared the results of a poll on several hot button industry issues, including excise tax reform, President Donald Trump’s tariffs on aluminum and FDA menu labeling. Following McGreevy’s presentation, BI chief economist Michael Uhrich offered the results of a survey on the attitudes of 21- to 24-year-old consumers toward beer, wine and liquor.

As the clock turned to midnight, the exemption on aluminum and steel tariffs expired on Canada, the European Union and Mexico. The levies imposed by President Donald Trump — 25 percent on foreign steel and 10 percent on aluminum — will now be collected from the nation’s trade allies, who have subsequently threatened to impose their own tariffs on U.S. exports. Brewbound stopped by the Beer Institute’s Washington, D.C., offices to discuss the news with CEO Jim McGreevy. Watch the video above.

In this week’s edition of Last Call: A New York distributor was fined $4.3 million in a bottle return scam; TTB says no to controlled substances in beer; Owens-Illinois announces plans to close its Atlanta facility;

In the continued fallout of President Donald Trump’s tariffs on foreign aluminum and steel, the Beer Institute (BI) is now calling on the Department of Commerce, the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission to investigate anticompetitive activity in the aluminum market.

The Beer Institute (BI) is forecasting U.S. beer shipments to decline between one and three percent in 2018, chief economist Michael Uhrich shared during the national trade association’s “State of the Industry” webinar today.

Leaders from the beer industry’s three largest trade associations are vowing once again to unite brewers and distributors in an effort to return the category to growth. Speaking to a group of nearly 700 U.S. beer distributors attending the annual National Beer Wholesalers Association (NBWA) legislative conference on Monday in Washington, D.C., Beer Institute CEO Jim McGreevy called on industry members to work together to curb volume losses.

Draft beer now accounts for nearly two-thirds of all on-premise beer volume, according to the Beer Institute’s (BI) annual State-Level Packaging Report, released today. Last year, 61.7 percent of all beer sold on-premise was poured on draft — a 1.8 point share gain — which the BI said is the highest on-premise draft share ever recorded.

In a move that would have wide-ranging effects on the beer industry, President Donald Trump yesterday announced plans to implement a 10 percent tariff on imported aluminum. The move comes weeks after the Commerce Department recommended tariffs on aluminum and steel as a national security precaution, citing the nation’s inability to build military weapons without foreign steel and aluminum.

2017 was historically bad for U.S. brewers, who shipped 3.8 million fewer barrels of beer than the previous year, according to the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau’s (TTB) unofficial estimate of domestic tax paid shipments. According to industry trade association the Beer Institute (BI) — which represents the interests of all brewers and importers and publishes the TTB’s monthly estimates — U.S. beer companies shipped about 170 million barrels of beer in 2017, compared to nearly 174 million barrels in 2016.

The U.S. Congress voted along party lines to pass the Republicans’ $1.5 trillion rewrite of the federal tax code, which includes two years of excise tax relief for alcohol producers and importers. The bill now heads to President Donald Trump, who is expected to sign it into law before the end of the week.

The United States Senate passed a sweeping tax reform bill early Saturday morning that includes a number of changes to the tax code and benefits alcohol producers. With a vote of 51-49 today, the Senate passed H.R. 1, the “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act,” which is the largest tax overhaul in 31 years and includes the Craft Beverage Modernization and Tax Reform Act (CBMTRA).

A majority of U.S. senate members now support legislation that would reduce excise taxes on all brewers and importers. According to a press release jointly produced by six beverage lobbying groups, including the Beer Institute and the Brewers Association, 51 senators have co-sponsored Senate Bill 236, known as the Craft Beverage Modernization and Tax Reform Act (CBMTRA).