Boston Beer Company has “gotten over the hump as a supplier” and become an “important” part of its wholesalers’ and retailers’ businesses, founder, chairman and CEO Jim Koch told analysts during the company’s Q1 2026 earnings report Thursday evening.
3 Up, 3 Down with 3 Tier Beverages is a quarterly insights series available to Brewbound Insiders, via the Chicago-headquartered, bev-alc-focused consulting and data firm.
Hard seltzers ended the summer season down -5.5% year-to-date through September 10 in multi-outlet plus convenience channels, as the segment continues to battle tough comps of years past, financial services firm Jefferies reported, citing NielsenIQ data.
On-premise sales over Labor Day weekend received “an uplift in velocity” on Sunday (+16%) and Monday (+54%) compared to the previous week, NielsenIQ’s on-premise tracking arm, CGA, reported today.
A group of investors has acquired Willie’s Superbrew after a tumultuous several months for the Boston-based hard seltzer brand. The acquiring group, Superbrew Acquisition Corporation (SAC), is led by Amos Beason, managing director of Charlotte, North Carolina-based Seward Capita
Light lager (+9%) and American lager (+19%) both grew share of sales on e-commerce alcohol delivery platform Drizly over Labor Day weekend compared to the holiday weekend in 2021, the company reported.
Boston Beer Company is launching a multimillion-dollar, multi-channel marketing campaign to support Truly Hard Seltzer, which it recently reformulated with real fruit juice. In the new ad campaign, Boston Beer, which has leaned on singer Dua Lipa in previous Truly ads, has instead turned to fruit flies to help promote the reformulated hard seltzer brand.
For the 52 weeks ending July 16, the combined malt- and spirits-based hard seltzer segment reached $4.263 billion, according to Jefferies equity research managing director Kevin Grundy. In the last four weeks, spirits-based seltzer’s share of the business has reached 9.1%. Malt- and sugar-based hard seltzers account for 90.9% of the segment – and their sales are declining.
As the largest hard seltzer brands cycle tough year-over-year comps, regional seltzer brands such as Boulevard Brewing Company’s Quirk Hard Seltzer are gaining traction in their home markets.
Total beer off-premise spending reached $1.104 billion for the week ending July 3, marking the category’s highest sales week of the year so far. Only the weeks that included July 4 in 2020 and 2021 saw stronger beer sales than this year’s holiday week.
Goldman Sachs’ pessimism for Boston Beer Company’s 2022 sales performance and the company’s ability to reach its 2022 guidance continues, with analyst Bonnie Herzog downgrading Boston Beer to a “sell” rating in the financial services firm’s June Beverage Bytes retailer survey.
Cowen is lowering its fiscal year 2023 estimates for Boston Beer Company, analyst Vivien Azer wrote in a report today, noting the financial services firm has become “increasingly skeptical” that Boston Beer will meet its guidance of +4%-+10% shipment and depletion growth.