FEATURE NEWS |
New Belgium Sell Out Through all the sales of craft breweries to massive beer conglomerates in recent years, New Belgium appeared ready to hold out, after establishing an employee-ownership structure that was roundly praised and even copied in the industry.In the end, though, the different route led Fat Tire to the same destination as other craft breweries that grew too large to do it on their own. New Belgium has announced that it will sell to Lion Little World Beverages, which is owned by Japan’s Kirin Holdings Co. Ltd New Belgium is much larger than Dogfish Head and Kona, ranking as the fourth-largest craft brewery in the U.S. by sales volume and the 11th-largest U.S. brewer overall, according to the Brewers Assoc. The purchase of New Belgium is the first big foray into the U.S. for Lion, which signalled its desire to break into the U.S. craft-beer market when it hired a new executive with experience acquiring craft breweries in May. Kirin also owns a stake in Brooklyn Brewery, and opened its first brewpub under the Australian brand Little Creatures last summer in San Francisco. |
Big Upswing for Boston Beer Boston Beer — whose brands include Samuel Adams beer, Angry Orchard hard cider, Twisted Tea and Truly Hard Seltzer — reported depletions (sales-to-retailers) growth of 30%, 24% of which came from Boston Beer’s core brands and 6% of which came from Dogfish Head offerings. The company reported net income of $44.7 million for the most recent quarter. CEO Dave Burwick credited Truly, Twisted Tea and Dogfish Head as the sources of the growth and noted that the performance of those brands was able to offset the declines of Samuel Adams and Angry Orchard.Truly Hard Seltzer generated triple- digit volume growth thanks to a reformulation all Truly flavors Next up is a Truly Hard Seltzer Lemonade in early 2020 Boston Beer also struck a sponsorship deal with the National Hockey League, and released a new Truly television campaign.To accomodate Truly’s growth, Boston Beer will add a canning line to its production brewery in Breinigsville, Pennsylvania, Truly has maintained its position as a distant second to Mark Anthony Brands’ White Claw. |
16. 5 Six Packs = one 99 Pack Pabst Blue Ribbon (PBR) jas rolled out limited-edition 99-packs in 15 U.S. states, offering beer-lovers the chance to marvel at ingenious seven-foot-long cases. But the story didn’t end there. The first brewer to roll out 99-packs was Austin Beerworks, in 2014. When PBR started gaining widespread attention for its new release, the Austin brewer got a little “pissy” for failing to receive credit for the idea, so it released a press release addressing the subject. “When we first saw the news that PBR was selling 99-packs just like the ones we released in 2014 for Peacemaker Anytime Ale, we were 99 percent pissed off,” Austin Beerworks wrote. “That gloriously ridiculous idea, which we created with Christian Helms and Mike Woolf, is one of our proudest achievements.” This isn’t the first time PBR has copied the idea. In 2017, after PBR released 99-packs in Canada for the first time, Austin Beerworks vented its frustrations via Facebook. Then, in May 2019, Beerworks once again took its grievances to Twitter. Apparently, this time it has worked. PBR recently announced that it plans to donate $9999.99 of the proceeds from the 99-pack sales to the Central Texas Food Bank, one of Beerworks’ favorite local charities. “Ideas are hard and they don’t all stick,” Matt Bruhn, general manager at PBR, said in a press release. “The 99-pack was a chance for us to pay homage to a great idea, give the world more beer to enjoy responsibly over the holiday season, and help a local community.” Beerworks summed it up best, writing: “We’re proud that a wild idea we had five years ago has proven too dumb to die and is still finding ways to give back.” |