Beyond Beer

Constellation Brands may have lowered its fiscal year 2025 (FY25) guidance earlier today, but the company has not lost confidence in the continued growth of its beer brands.

Ready-to-drink products have built their brands around different cocktails: Some are sessionable seltzers or old classics, others are obscure cocktails that haven’t yet hit mainstream. But Gin & Juice By Dre and Snoop, so far, is the only one that has emerged from a ’90s rap anthem.

Earnings calls from Brown-Forman and Pernod Ricard echoed other spirit companies struggling to regain their footing in the U.S. as the inventory build-up continues. Meanwhile, Pernod Ricard announced separately it is further bolstering its non-alc portfolio.

Sazerac-owned BuzzBallz has selected the Reyes Beverage Group as its distributor in California, Illinois, Indiana and South Carolina, the multistate wholesaler announced today.

While brewery menus are littered with near beer options and non-alcoholic spirits are making their way onto bar menus as the fastest growing category in the zero-proof set, wine remains one of the most difficult bev-alc formats to bridge the gap between fully dry consumers and the sober-curious drinkers driving category growth.

BeatBox founders Aimy Steadman, Justin Fenchel and Brad Schultz’s ask to wholesalers is to help them build a “flavor wall” at retailers across the country. They described the flavor wall – two to three shelves, featuring assorted flavors of the party punch – during BeatBox’s first large-scale distributor meeting in Houston last week.

The latest data set from NIQ showed a modest improvement in sales growth for total bev-alc in the two-week period before August 10, according to analysis from Goldman Sachs Equity Research.

Spirits, hard cider, mead and braggot producers can now ship their products directly to New York consumers. Gov. Kathy Hochul signed Senate Bill S2852A into law Monday, allowing direct-to-consumer (DTC) shipping from in- and out-of-state manufacturers.

Stevenson announced the news Friday on LinkedIn, posting a photo of herself with JuneShine co-founders Greg Serraro and Forrest Dein, and writing: “Could not be more excited to join Greg, Forrest and the JuneShine Team! So many exciting things to come!”

Earlier this month, an article in Food & Wine proclaimed craft spirits in crisis, kicking off a tense debate between wholesalers and craft spirit representatives about the root causes of the challenges facing distillers.

Party punch maker BeatBox hosted its first national sales meeting in Houston, which had the feel of a Meow Wolf, with a faux convenience store decked out in neon, a trippy giant mushroom-covered hard tea garden, a Las Vegas-themed area with casino games, a lab for new innovations with “scientists” that looked strikingly like Rick of Rick and Morty Adult Swim fame and the usual presentations about the coming year.

Music festival season is in full swing, and this year it’s seeing more than just psychedelic costumes and light shows. The music industry is nothing if not eager to tap into youth trends; in this case, it’s the rising popularity of non-alcoholic beverages from across categories that’s manifesting at concert venues nationwide.

The adult non-alc industry was rocked in April when pioneering retailer Boisson shut its nine physical stores and filed for bankruptcy. Now, many non-alc (NA) brands are still asking questions about the closure, while others are finding opportunity in a growing landscape.

Hard seltzers remain down double-digits through mid-July in Circana-tracked off-premise retailers. Hard seltzer declined -11.8% in dollars and -16.1% in volume through the rolling 52-week period ending July 14.