Distribution

Anheuser-Busch InBev may be looking inward for a possible successor for CEO Carlos Brito. According to Bloomberg News, Michel Doukeris, CEO of A-B’s U.S. business, is the front-runner to succeed Brito.

Consumers spent $97 million on craft beer through e-commerce in 2020, which accounted for 24% of all beer category dollar sales online. In brick-and-mortar stores, however, craft beer makes up 12.6% of all dollar sales. In fact, craft has the second largest dollar share behind flavored malt beverages (32%), which include hard seltzers.

San Diego-based independent wholesaler Scout Distribution will begin distributing the Port Brewing and Tiny Bubbles brands beginning March 1, the San Marcos, California craft brewery announced today.

Des Moines, Iowa-based Exile Brewing Company is expanding its distribution reach even further in the state of Illinois after launching in the Chicago suburbs of Aurora, Naperville, Wheaton, and Elgin last week.

After 15 years, Port Brewing LLC (Port Brewing and The Lost Abbey) notified Stone Distributing last week that it was giving 60 days’ notice and terminating its distribution contract without cause.

Morganton, North Carolina-based Catawba Brewing Company acquired Skytown Beer Company, a brewpub in Wilmington, North Carolina, in a deal that closed February 10. Fifteen months after retrenching to focus on its brewpub, Boulder Beer’s portfolio will return to distribution in 28 states through a partnership with Stem Ciders and contract brewer Sleeping Giant in Denver.

Stone Distributing Company teased a move to a larger distribution center last week. The distribution arm of San Diego’s Stone Brewing Company today officially announced the move of its operations to the former Markstein Beverage Co. warehouse in San Marcos.

Ride-sharing tech behemoth Uber Technologies has struck a deal to acquire on-demand alcohol delivery marketplace Drizly for $1.1 billion in stock and cash, the companies announced today.

Stone Brewing Company has sold its distribution rights in Santa Clara County to Matagrano, which will begin distribution of the San Diego-based craft brewery’s portfolio beginning March 1.

Nearly two months after the close of its sale to Canadian cannabis company Aphria, Atlanta-headquartered SweetWater Brewing said it will expand distribution to Colorado, the first state to legalize cannabis for recreational use.

San Francisco-based Fort Point Beer Company has ended its 6-year-old self-distribution operation and sold the rights to distribute its brands to Matagrano Inc. in the Bay Area. Offerings from Bell’s Brewery will be sold by Classic Beverage in Southern California, following the acquisition of Bell’s brand rights by the City of Industry-headquartered wholesaler, which purchased Craft Beer Guild from Sheehan Family Companies.

As it continues to develop new non-alcoholic brands in a myriad of categories, the Molson Coors Beverage Company announced today that it will enter the energy space with ZOA, a new better-for-you energy drink co-founded by actor Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.

Boston-headquartered alcohol e-commerce marketplace Drizly announced today that its service is now available to the 4.4 million people in Atlanta and its surrounding suburbs.

A dispute in one of the most prominent families in the beer industry — the Massachusetts-based Sheehans, owners of Sheehan Family Companies, which operates beer wholesalers in 13 states and Washington, D.C. — has spilled into the court system. Timothy G. Sheehan and George L. Cushing, a trustee who represents trusts that benefit Tim Sheehan and his brother John T. Sheehan, filed a civil lawsuit in Massachusetts’ Suffolk Superior Court alleging that the patriarch and matriarch of the family, Gerald (“Jerry”) and Maureen Sheehan, have violated their fiduciary duties and misappropriated company funds.