With wind in its sails from accelerating grocery sales, Sapporo has set its sights on multi-channel expansion. The 149-year-old brand has been invigorated in recent years as Sapporo-Stone, the combined entity born from the former’s acquisition of the latter in 2022, takes shape.
U.S. brewers shipped more beer this March, with domestic tax paid shipments increasing 0.7% year-over-year (YoY), to 12.5 million barrels of beer, the Beer Institute reported, citing domestic tax paid estimates from the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB).
The U.S. market was somewhat prepared for President Donald Trump to enact tariffs during his presidency, as promised during his campaign. But it wasn’t prepared for how “aggressive” those tariffs would be, including the speed and extent of their implementation, Rabobank global strategist, beverages, Stephen Rannekleiv said Thursday during a webinar hosted by the Brewers Association (BA).
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.
An estimated 10.3 million barrels of beer were shipped in the U.S. in February, a -14.9% decline and loss of more than 1.8 million barrels year-over-year (YoY), Beer Institute (BI) chief economist Andrew Heritage reported in the trade group’s latest round of economic reports, citing estimates from the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB).
President Donald Trump’s reveal of sweeping tariffs on Wednesday included a 25% tariff on all imported beer and empty aluminum cans. Those tariffs are expected to go into effect at 12:01 a.m. EDT Friday, April 4.
Distributor sentiment for the beer category continued to fall this month, according to the latest Beer Purchasers’ Index (BPI) from the National Beer Wholesalers Association (NBWA).
President Donald Trump launched a trade war today with the United States’ North American trade partners, Canada and Mexico, implementing 25% tariffs on goods imported from each country. Trump also doubled existing duties on goods from China to 20%.
2025 kicked off with cautious optimism for the beer category, but that has been quickly subdued after a disappointing February and Super Bowl performance, according to Bump Williams Consulting’s (BWC) monthly report, citing NIQ off-premise data (total U.S. xAOC + liquor + convenience) through mid-February.
After another soft quarter and with the potential of tariffs looming, bev-alc giant Constellation Brands revised its financial guidance downward in the release of its Q3 earnings on Friday.
The U.S.’s total beer supply declined -6.7% year-over-year (YoY) in September, as built-up summer inventories (domestic production plus imports) fell back in line with depletion trends, according to Beer Institute (BI) chief economist Andrew Heritage.
While beer consumers – particularly core craft fans – once cared more about brand and where a product was made, most bev-alc consumers are now prioritizing price, quality and availability, among other factors. This has caused not only a shift in how craft beer is produced and marketed (hello, contract brewing boom), but also trends in imported beer.
Sapporo is the largest Asian import beer brand by U.S. dollar sales by a wide margin, but Sapporo-Stone leadership has its sights on doubling the brand’s share of overall imports in the coming years, executives said during the brand’s virtual annual business plan meeting with wholesalers last week.
Constellation Brands unveiled today the Q2 financials that showed slowing growth, which led to the company lowering its fiscal year 2025 (FY25) guidance last month.
