Industry, Legislative, Government Affairs & Legal Updates
Stay informed on the latest beer industry, legislative, government affairs and legal news, including updates on the Brewers Association and NBWA. Understand the evolving beverage alcohol regulatory and legal environment that can directly impact your distribution, retail efforts, intellectual property, packaging and ingredients.
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Craft beer has entered “no to negative growth territory,” Brewers Association (BA) chief economist Bart Watson said during a year-end webinar last week. “We were in double-digit growth as recently as 2014, 2015, and then we moved into kind of a more developed, slow, single-digit growth rate,” Watson said. “COVID hit, and we had the worst year in craft history in 2020 with a partial bounce back in 2021.
This year will be the first, other than 2020, in which independent breweries’ volume has declined in the modern era of craft beer, according to the Brewers Association’s (BA) 2023 Year in Beer report.
Incoming National Beer Wholesalers Association (NBWA) chairman Jim Fabianao II stressed that distributors “must control our own destiny,” in his first speech during Tuesday’s Annual Convention general session in Las Vegas.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Retail Services & Systems, Inc. (RSSI), parent company of national bev-alc retailer Total Wine & More, have reached a tentative agreement in the FTC’s civil investigative demand (CID) against the chain, according to a Law360 report.
Wholesalers’ beer ordering entered expansion territory in November after four months of contraction, indicating “a more neutral stance for the industry,” according to the National Beer Wholesalers Association’s (NBWA) latest Beer Purchasers’ Index (BPI). The BPI’s November reading for total beer was 51, a three-point month-over-month (MoM) increase from October’s reading of 48. A reading greater than 50 indicates expansion, while less than 50 indicates contraction.
New Jersey craft brewers are reeling after Gov. Phil Murphy’s conditional veto of a unanimously passed bill that would reform the Garden State’s restrictive conditions for sales and operations at craft brewery taprooms.
Huntersville, North Carolina-based D9 Brewing, its co-founders and its parent company Community Brewing Ventures are facing a lawsuit filed by SouthState Bank, National Association, which claims the defendants have breached their contract with the bank.
Boston Beer Company executives made “inactionable statement[s] of corporate optimism” about sales of Truly Hard Seltzer during its Q1 and Q2 earnings calls in 2021, negating a lawsuit and subsequent appeal filed by investors who alleged the company misled them about the brand and company’s performance. A panel of three Second Circuit judges upheld the… Read more »
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) alleges that Total Wine & More “will continue to evade its production obligations absent an enforcement order” from the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. The agency and the national beverage-alcohol retailer are at odds over whether Retail Services & Systems, Inc. (RSSI), Total Wine’s parent company,… Read more »
One shareholder of Massachusetts-based Tree House Brewing has filed a lawsuit against co-owners Nate Lanier and Damien Goudreau, claiming they have misused company funds, neglected to offer shareholder dividends, and withheld tax documentation. Eric Granger, a Monson, Massachusetts resident who owns 2% of Tree House’s shares, filed the lawsuit against Lanier, Goudreau and Tree House… Read more »
In a significant win for the burgeoning industry, the New York Supreme Court ordered yesterday a preliminary injunction against the emergency measures that abruptly halted the sale of hemp-derived THC-infused products in August
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and national bev-alc retailer Total Wine & More are at odds over the chain’s participation in the government agency’s investigation of multi-state wine and spirits wholesaler Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits.
Massachusetts-based Quality Beverage has filed a lawsuit against Constellation Brands, alleging the bev-alc giant has interfered with its pending sale to wine and spirits wholesaler Martignetti Companies.
Many of the conversations on stage this week at the National Beer Wholesaler Association’s Annual Convention made some mention of Anheuser-Busch InBev’s (A-B) sales declines and the impact on beer distributors.
This year has been “nothing short of tumultuous” for the beer industry, National Beer Wholesaler Association (NBWA) outgoing chairman Gordon Green said during Monday’s general session at the trade organization’s Annual Convention in Las Vegas.
The health of the beer category is the top concern across all distributor networks “by a significant margin,” per a biannual survey conducted by the National Beer Wholesalers Association (NBWA), president and CEO Craig Purser shared in his remarks during the opening General Session of the trade group’s 2023 Annual Convention.
The Coca-Cola Company is “not here to crash [beer distributors’] party,” Dan White, Coca-Cola, North America chief of new revenue streams, said in a fireside chat with National Beer Wholesaler Association (NBWA) president and CEO Craig Purser Monday during the NBWA’s annual convention.
