Boston Beer Up Double Digits
Boston Beer Co. reported record second quarter net revenue of $92.9 million, a 17.1% increase over the same period last year. The net revenue increase was primarily driven by a 14.6% core shipment volume increase and an increase in revenue per barrel of approximately 2%.
Distributor sales of the Boston Beer brands to retail totaled approximately 0.5 million barrels, a 16.2% increase from the second quarter 2006.
Core shipment volume for the six month period ended June 30, 2007 was 0.9 million barrels, an 18.5% increase from the same period in the prior year.
According to a company press release, shipments and orders in-hand suggest that core shipments for the nine months ending September 30, 2007 appear to be up approximately 15% as compared to the same period in 2006.
Jim Koch, Chairman and Founder of the Company, commented, “We feel very positive about our second quarter depletions growth of 16%. This was our sixth successive quarter of double digit increases.”
As previously reported, Boston Beer has entered into a Contract of Sale to purchase from Diageo North America a brewery located in Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania for $55 million. The Lehigh Valley brewery was built for the F. & M. Schaefer Brewing Company in the 1970s, and was operated by the Stroh Brewery for many years. During part that period Stroh brewed Samuel Adams beer for Boston Beer. When Stroh exited the brewing business, Pabst Brewing Company bought it. Pabst and operated it until September of 2001, when discontinued making its own beer. Diageo then bought it to make Smirnoff Ice.
Boston Beer has said they expect that restarting the brewhouse and completing other necessary upgrades may cost between $30 million and $75 million.
