Earnings

Weak alcohol sales dragged on Monster Beverage in Q1, part of a confluence of factors that saw net sales drop 2.3% during the quarter.

The results of Molson Coors’ Q1 in fiscal year 2025 (FY25) were in stark contrast to the first quarter of 2024. Q1 net sales declined 11.3% year-over-year (-10.4% on a constant currency basis), the company reported Thursday morning. A year ago, Molson Coors reported 10.7% YoY (+10.1% in constant currency) net sales growth in Q1.

Ball Corp. chairman and CEO Daniel W. Fisher has once again called on major beer manufacturers to deploy “more aggressive pricing” strategies to “push volume,” suggesting those strategies have worked for energy drink companies and other non-alcoholic (NA) beverage producers.

Twisted Tea has been a positive outlier for Boston Beer Company in recent years, posting consistent growth for the company and combating declines from its sibling brands, including Truly Hard Seltzer. However, it is now Boston Beer’s spirits-based hard tea, Sun Cruiser, that is pulling the weight.

Boston Beer Company had a more positive start to fiscal year 2025 compared to the company’s recent quarterly performances, according to Q1 financial results released after trading ended on Thursday.

After months of avoiding a concrete answer on how tariffs could impact Constellation Brands’ Mexican beer import business, the company has now lowered its medium-term projections due to economic expectations.

Monster Beverage Company reported a $130.7 million impairment charge on its alcohol brands in Q4 2024, bringing its total write down on its bev-alc business over the last year to more than $138.7 million, the energy drink giant reported yesterday in its Q4 and full-year 2024 earnings report.

After ending fiscal year 2024 (FY24) with single-digit volume declines, Boston Beer is planning to dial in on key innovation items and support its portfolio with increased advertising in 2025.

Spirit suppliers got a brief reprieve when President Donald Trump delayed tariffs with Mexico and Canada on Monday, but the threat of a trade war has still hampered the growth outlook for one of the industry’s biggest players. Meanwhile, Guinness continues to be a bright spot in Diageo’s portfolio, achieving its eighth consecutive half of double-digit growth, delivering +17% organic net sales growth in the period.

Ball Corporation’s full-year earnings call proved eventful, with the world’s largest can manufacturer announcing plans to build a new dual-line can manufacturing facility in Oregon, as well as acquire a Florida manufacturer in a $160 million deal.

Brown-Forman, the leading exporter of U.S. spirits to the world, beat analysts’ expectations in its latest quarterly earnings report, thanks to a jump in demand from its more premium whiskies. But the president and CEO of the Jack Daniels Whiskey maker cautioned that with potential tariffs looming it was facing “so many potential scenarios and unknowns.”

The beer category’s sluggish summer was apparent in Molson Coors’ third quarter earnings, which the company reported last week. Net sales in the Americas declined -11%, driven by a -15.6% decline in financial volumes “and unfavorable foreign currency impacts, partially offset by favorable price and sales mix,” Molson Coors wrote in its earnings report.

Ball Corporation president and CEO Daniel Fisher expressed confidence in the world’s largest can manufacturer’s ability to win with beer and beverage-alcohol companies, during the company’s Q3 2024 earnings call Thursday.

Boston Beer Company’s Q3 financials were described by one analyst, Bernstein’s Nadine Sarwat, as “a messy set of results.” The company’s portfolio – including Samuel Adams, Dogfish Head, Truly Hard Seltzer, Angry Orchard, Sun Cruiser and Hard MTN Dew – reported a -1.9% year-over-year (YoY) decline in shipments (sales to wholesalers) and -3% decline in depletions (sales to retailers) in the quarter.