The Boston Beer Company reported financial results for the third quarter and year-to-date fiscal periods ended September 25, 2021. Third quarter depletions increased 11% and third quarter shipments increased 11.2% compared to the prior year. Third quarter net revenue of $561.6 million increased 14% compared to the prior year
Year-to-date shipments increased 29.7% compared to the prior year with year-to-date net revenue of $1.710 billion, up 34% compared to the prior year.
The sudden downturn in hard seltzer impacted Boston’s growth this year with their seltzer brand Truly a key ingredient in the company’s portfolio. “The unexpected rapid slowdown of hard seltzer category growth this summer significantly impacted our business,” said Dave Burwick, President and CEO. “While Truly has continued to grow, gain share and solidify its long-term position, the slower category performance has reduced our full-year growth expectations for Truly to be between 20-25% year-over-year. In addition, the capacity and inventory we had built to take advantage of a higher-growth environment resulted in significant temporary costs this quarter.”
Boston also announced in their earnings report that they would take a national price increase of between 2% and 3% before the end of the year. They estimate a depletions and shipments increase of between 18% and 22% for the full year.
See the full press release here.