Big Beer

More than a year after it began, a federal circuit judge ruled that Anheuser-Busch InBev is free to continue its advertising campaign calling out the use of corn syrup in Molson Coors Beverage Company’s flagship light lagers.

After a corporate restructuring in the fourth quarter of 2019 and a bevy of new products hitting the market in the New Year, Molson Coors Beverage Company was poised for a strong 2020. But then the COVID-19 outbreak shutdown on-premise bars and restaurants in mid-March, and everything changed. In the first quarter of 2020, Molson Coors’ net sales revenue declined 8.7%.

Molson Coors today launched a new Coors Light campaign featuring voice over work from Billions star Paul Giammati.

The story of Boston Beer Company’s Truly Hard Seltzer brand remains the same; the company can’t keep up with demand for the hard seltzer category’s second largest brand. The mid-March pantry stock up caused by the novel coronavirus shutting down virtually all on-premise sales led to a spike in Truly sales earlier than expected.

Boston Beer Company posted double-digit depletions, shipments and net revenue growth in the first quarter of 2020, continuing momentum that propelled the company to $995.7 million in revenue in 2019.

Anheuser-Busch InBev today announced several measures in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including a $1 million donation to the U.S. Bartender Emergency Assistance Program and a 50% reimbursement for untapped, out-of-code beer through July 1.

Two months after Constellation Brands made a minority investment in Press Premium Alcohol Seltzer, the company’s chief commercial officer for its beer division, Bruce Jacobson, announced he is leaving the beer, wine and spirits company after 17 years to join the Milwaukee, Wisconsin-based hard seltzer maker.

Stone Brewing Company laid off employees of its restaurants, taprooms and distributions sales force, which amounted about 306 workers. Some state lawmakers have proposed bills that would extend business interruption insurance clauses to cover losses sustained from closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Constellation Brands will continue production of import brands Corona, Modelo and Pacifico at its facilities in Mexico, despite the suspension of nonessential businesses in that country.

San Diego-headquartered Stone Brewing’s long-running trademark infringement lawsuit against Molson Coors’ Keystone brand will move to trial in October. Stone first brought the lawsuit against MillerCoors in February 2018 in the U.S. District Court Southern District of California, alleging that the April 2017 packaging and marketing refresh for the company’s Keystone Light brand that more prominently featured the word “Stone” infringed on the craft brewery’s intellectual property.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed the $2.2 trillion stimulus package Friday afternoon and sent the bill to President Donald Trump, who signed the bill into law at 4 p.m. ET in the Oval Office. U.S. brewers shipped 11,350,000 barrels in February, a decline of 0.7% compared to February 2019, according to national trade group the Beer Institute.

As the coronavirus disease known as COVID-19 spreads across the U.S., beer companies are adjusting their businesses for a reality in which being social is discouraged. Many companies are bracing for a downturn in on-premise business, including brewery taprooms.

Craft Brew Alliance (CBA) referred to the Kona brand as its “cornerstone” while reporting the company’s fourth quarter and full-year 2019 earnings report Wednesday afternoon. Last year, the Hawaiian-themed craft beer brand shipped 474,800 barrels, an increase of 4.1%.

The crowd-sourced fund to support the families of victims of the shooting at Molson Coors Brewing Company’s Milwaukee campus last month has topped $1.1 million. The fund, which reached $1,178,770 as of press time, was set up on behalf of the National Compassion Fund, a program of the National Center for Victims of Crime. All funds collected will go directly to the families of the five victims.