Despite an unexpectedly challenging 2025, Constellation Brands was still able to gain share in 49 states last year, beer division president Jim Sabia shared with distributors last night in Las Vegas during the opening session for the company’s annual Gold Network Summit.  

Brewbound editor Justin Kendall is in town for the event, and has all the details from Sabia’s remarks for Brewbound Insiders, including where Constellation is finding wins within losses and new pricing and packaging adjustments for 2026. 

In today’s Top Story and on Brewbound.com, Insiders are also reading about:

• BrewDog job cuts and brewpub changes following Tilray’s acquisition of part of the company;

• Better-than-anticipated post-Valentine’s Day off-premise scans from Circana;

• On update on GA’s self-distribution efforts;

• The latest on Constellation’s sales chief search;

• Distribution expansion for Boston Beer’s Sinless Vodka Cocktails;

• And a packaging refresh by Bitburger.

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Constellation Brands wasn’t immune from the beverage-alcohol industry’s “tough” 2025, beer division president Jim Sabia acknowledged Monday during the opening session of the company’s Gold Network Summit.

In recapping Constellation's 2025, Sabia quoted Mike Tyson’s “everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth” line. Sabia admitted the last year wasn’t up to the Mexican beer importer’s “typical standards,” but “many” of the headwinds were “outside of our control.”

Constellation’s “control the controllables” strategy helped its portfolio – led by Modelo, Corona, Pacifico and Corona – outperform the overall beer industry (-2.8% versus -5.4%), and gain share in 49 of 50 states. 

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Nearly 500 workers will lose their jobs with the closure of 38 BrewDog-owned pubs across the U.K. following Tilray’s acquisition of parts of the Scottish craft brewery, consultant firm AlixPartners shared in a press release.

AlixPartners wrote: “No offer was made at any stage of the sales process, from any prospective bidder, which would have preserved BrewDog in its entirety. Regrettably, a total of 38 bars in the U.K. will close with immediate effect, leading to 484 redundancies.”

Dig in further

Tilray Brands has struck a deal to acquire some assets of Scottish craft brewery BrewDog, it announced today. 

The deal, which closed today, includes BrewDog’s global brand and IP, its brewing operations in Scotland, and 11 pubs across the U.K. and Ireland. A separate deal for assets in the U.S. and Australia is underway and expected to close in 30 days. 

The announcement comes weeks after news broke that BrewDog was exploring a sale and had secured the services of global consulting firm AlixPartners.

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Despite a post-holiday decline in off-premise sales WoW, bev-alc’s YoY growth expanded in the latest week, according to Circana.

Total bev-alc dollar sales grew 1.8% YoY (data ending February 22) in Circana-tracked off-premise channels, to nearly $1.17 billion, while volume increased 0.7%.

The latest growth follows YoY gains in the prior week (dollar sales +1.4%, volume +0.2%), which included Valentine’s Day (February 14) and part of the Presidents’ Day (February 16) 3-day weekend. 

Dive deeper 

The Brewbound team is heading to the New England Craft Brew Summit (Friday, March 6) in Portland, ME. We’ll be on the ground covering the latest news and conversations coming out of the event, as well as recording Brewbound Podcast On Location interviews.

Here are a few ways to connect with us:

1. Stop by Booth #3: Watch a podcast recording, grab a T-shirt and chat with the team.

2. Share your news: Have updates from your brewery? We’d love to hear from you.

3. Reach out to meet: Email us at podcast@brewbound.com if you want to catch up in Portland.

See you there!

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