An Online Resource Serving The Beer Industry
News/ Business of Beerposted by Tom McCormick
Over the last 10 years or so, some breweries have incorporated the concept of members-only clubs into their business strategies as a way to pre-sell exclusive brands within the portfolio. But these limited-access clubs typically represented only a portion of the brewery’s overall production.
Read more...News/ Brewery Equipmentposted by Tom McCormick
MicroStar Logistics, the largest independent owner of beer kegs in the world, announced that it has acquired the keg rental company Kegstar. The acquisition will grow Denver-based MicroStar’s international business by taking on Kegstar’s clients which include breweries in Australia, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the U.S.
Read more...News/ Business of Beerposted by Tom McCormick
Draft “self-pour” systems, where the customer pours beer from the tap faucet themselves with payment made by a credit card tied to an RFID card that dispenses the beer automatically, have grown popular during the pandemic. The systems are being touted to consumers as less contact with servers and being marketed to retailers as a way to save waste at the faucet. The systems are said to increase profit margin to the retailers by as much as 21% on each keg.
Read more...News/ Business of Beerposted by Tom McCormick
Uber has purchased the alcohol delivery service Drizly for $1.1 billion.
Read more...News/ Distribution & Retailposted by Tom McCormick
A bill in Kentucky would allow limited self-distribution for brewers in the state to sell up to 2,500 barrels of beer directly to licensed retailers. Currently in the state, all beer must be sold to a distributor.
Read more...News/ Business of Beerposted by Tom McCormick
Disagreement among wholesalers in California over the rampant consolidation in the state, driven by Reyes Beverage Group, has created a split in what was once the sole trade association.
Read more...News/ Business of Beerposted by Tom McCormick
The state of Kentucky has enacted a direct-to-consumer (DTC) shipping law for beer, wine, and spirits, allowing alcohol manufacturers to ship beer to consumers doors in the state.
Read more...News/ Business of Beerposted by Tom McCormick
Data from Nielson CGA shows that 50% of consumers have gone out to the on premise for an eating occasion since venues reopened, and 17% for a drink led occasion. This has stayed relatively even for several months now and may indicate an end to the decline in business since the pandemic began in March of last year.
Read more...News/ Business of Beerposted by Tom McCormick
After a 10-year effort to pass franchise reform in Massachusetts, Senate Bill 2841 has been signed into law by Mass. Governor Charlie Baker.
Read more...News/ Distribution & Retailposted by Tom McCormick
Craft breweries made it popular. Beer-centric taphouses picked up on it. Wineries and wine bars have played with it for many years. But cocktails?
Read more...News/ Business of Beerposted by Tom McCormick
Nielsen CGA data, which tracks sales volume in the on-premise restaurant and bar sectors has released their data for last year. No surprise, the results show the devastating impact of the covid pandemic.
Read more...News/ Business of Beerposted by Tom McCormick
After a 10-year effort to pass franchise reform in Massachusetts, the Mass Brewers Guild and the Massachusetts Wholesalers Association have finally forged a compromise. Senate Bill 2841 was passed by Massachusetts lawmakers in a final vote yesterday.
Read more...News/ Business of Beerposted by Tom McCormick
Denver’s Falling Rock Tap House is selling off vintage bottles of beer it has collected over the years to generate revenue to stay in business.
Read more...News/ Business of Beerposted by Tom McCormick
According to Nielsen CGA’s latest Impact Report, 50% of consumers have gone out to the on-premise to eat in the past 2 weeks, slightly down from 54% in the November survey. The report attributes the decline to tighter restrictions across a number of states.
Read more...News/ Business of Beerposted by Tom McCormick
Most states allow direct-to-consumer (DTC) shipping of wine, but not for beer. Check Kentucky off the list. The state of Kentucky now allows out-of-state breweries to ship beer directly to consumers.
Read more...News/ Crisis Responseposted by Tom McCormick
Grocery stores and other food retailers are a clear winner in the pandemic era with profits up by an average of 39% in the first half of the year according to an article in the Detroit Free Press.
Read more...News/ Business of Beerposted by Tom McCormick
The last full-scale reset at most off-premise chain stores was all the way back in fall of last year. The pandemic threw a wrench in the “normal life” of grocery store beer sets, with retailers not doing a spring reset and instead placing on the shelf anything that was available and not out-of-stock.
Read more...News/ Business of Beerposted by Tom McCormick
Iconic Philadelphia craft beer bar the Grey Lodge has announced that they will close for good due to COVID restrictions.
Read more...News/ Crisis Responseposted by Tom McCormick
Multiple cities and states are imposing or threatening to impose new shutdown orders for restaurants and bars due to a nationwide uptick in Coronavirus cases. The closures and additional restrictions will mean that beer sales are likely to slump once again in the on-premise retail sector.
Read more...News/ Business of Beerposted by Tom McCormick
Despite significant drops in average on-premise outlet sales, new BeverageTrak data from Nielsen CGA revealed several new positive trends for on-premise businesses struggling in the wake of COVID-19.
Read more...News/ Crisis Responseposted by Tom McCormick
Nielsen CGA, which measure the on-premise retail channel, released data for the one-week period ending October 17th showing that dollar sales were down 7% for the week. The five states where data is collected include California, Texas, Illinois, New York and Florida. Only New York showed an increase with a 3% growth in dollar sales versus the previous week.
Read more...News/ Business of Beerposted by Tom McCormick
Predicting future sales is always tricky, even in ‘normal’ times when things are somewhat predictable. But the pandemic’s shifting regulations and purchasing behaviors have made sales predictions for craft brewers far more difficult.
Read more...News/ Crisis Responseposted by Tom McCormick
Nielson CGA’s most recent data on the on-premise business in eight key states show that average dollar sales (velocity) were slightly up, with a +4% change during the week ending October 10th versus the previous week. The increase is a sign that the on-premise business sector is improving as more regions slowly reduce restrictions on business due to COVID-19.
Read more...News/ Distribution & Retailposted by Tom McCormick
The National Beer Wholesalers Association (NBWA) closed out the 83rd Annual Convention with the transition of the Chairmanship from Brian Gelner to Patrick Blach, President of Blach Distributing Company in Elko, Nev.
Read more...News/ Business of Beerposted by Tom McCormick
The pandemic has hit the hospitality business especially hard, with many independent, small “mom and pop” on-premise restaurants forcing to close permanently. But the COVID-19 crisis has also had a big impact on large restaurant chains, with many chains filing for bankruptcy protection.
Read more...News/ Distribution & Retailposted by Tom McCormick
The National Beer Wholesalers Association (NBWA) announced that it will host its 83rd Annual Convention and Product Showcase virtually, October 5-6, 2020.
Read more...News/ Business of Beerposted by Tom McCormick
The most recent Nielsen CGA on-premise report shows that trends continue to slowly move in the right direction, with week-on-week velocity growing +2% September 5 vs August 29 across the U.S.
Read more...News/ Business of Beerposted by Tom McCormick
The National Beer Wholesalers Association (NBWA) has released the Beer Purchasers’ Index (BPI) for August 2020 as beer distributors continue to take an aggressive stance in their ordering to minimize out-of-stocks and compensate for lost draft beer volumes and on-premise closures. BPI is the only forward-looking indicator for distributors to measure expected beer demand. The index surveys beer distributors’ purchases across different segments and compares them to previous years. A reading greater than 50 indicates the segment is expanding, while a reading below 50 indicates the segment is contracting.
Read more...News/ Business of Beerposted by Tom McCormick
It has been here for a while, lingering around the edges of alcohol sales for a number of years. But it took a pandemic and economic shut-down to push it front and center. Third party online alcohol sales are here to stay and will be just one of the radical shifts in the alcohol industry that we will see going forward after the COVID crisis.
Read more...News/ Business of Beerposted by Tom McCormick
Off-premise scan data is continuing to show very strong results with continuing high demand for in-home consumption of alcohol.
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