Welcome to Brewbound’s Inside Look at the Beer Business for the week that was … Saturday, January 11, 2024.

Welcome to the beer biz, TKO. Yes, on the day that the owner of the WWE (and UFC) announced that it became a minority investor in Real American Beer, the beer’s top spokesperson had a … less than favorable launch night appearance on NETFLIX WWE RAW.

Enjoy that extra Real American Beer inventory, y’all – and you know it’s bad when this headline came from Rupert Murdoch’s NY Post.

PLUS: Gotta love the news that LAGUNITAS is kicking the tires on a large new warehouse facility in Oakland, after closing up shop on their large brewing facility in Chicago … just last year.

WELL: NEW BELGIUM, exactly WTF is a “hard refresher?” Oh, wait I’m sorry – according to LIGHTSTRIKE’s brand manager, it “makes partying a sport.” 

Well, don’t I feel foolish. 

THEN: CBC early registration is now open for the event taking place in Indianapolis this year, starting April 28.

GOOD NEWS!: We have a new IPA in 2025! Phew 😅 … meet Daytrip IPA from Tilray-owned SWEETWATER, which will join the year-round lineup. The 6.6% ABV “tropical IPA” is also not hazy! Actually, that part is kinda newsworthy.

AND: Here’s how the final numbers came in for beer’s performance in the off-prem in 2024, according to NIQ data:

• Sales: -0.7%
• Volume: -2.9%

Here’s how things ranked by segment in NIQ data, with three up 🥳:

• FMB, excl. hard seltzers (+5.5% dollars, +3.8% volume);
• Imports (+4.2% dollars, +2.5% volume);
• Domestic super premiums (+1.5% dollars, +0.6% volume).

And … seven down ☹️:

• Hard seltzer (-9.4% dollars, -12.2% volume);
• Premium light ( -6.1% dollars, -7.7% volume);
• Premium regular (-3.8% dollars, -6% volume);
• Malt liquor (-3.7% dollars, -6.9% volume);
• Craft beer (-2.4% dollars, -4.3% volume);
• Hard cider (-2.1% dollars, -4.1% volume);
• Below premium ( -0.5% dollars, -2.6% volume).

PLUS: Here are CIRCANA’s 2024 numbers (which are not too far off from NIQ), and how they have sales coming in by channel:

• GROCERY: -0.4% sales, -2% volume;
• CONVENIENCE: -1.1% sales, -3.7% volume.

Wait, I think we spelled “adding” wrong. Huh, nope – TILRAY is indeed getting rid of quite a few products across 20 brands, with more planned ahead in 2025!

The company expects the reduction to result in a $20M to $25M net sales decline for FY25 (ending May 31). But just think of the cost savings in the labeling department! Not to mention the freed up space on the logo storage server.

Future SKU cuts will be on a “one in, one out” basis once this purge is completed.

AND: Here is TILRAY’s Q2 FY25 snapshot (aka Q4 2024).

• NET REVENUE: +9% YoY
• NET LOSS: -$85M
• ADJ. NET LOSS: -$2M (eliminating things like one-time costs, currency fluctuations, etc).

Net revenue by business:

• DISTRIBUTION: +1.5% ($68M)
• CANNABIS: -1.5% ($66M)
• BEV-ALC: +36% ($63M)
• WELLNESS: +13% ($15M)

Meet “ATHLETIC January” – sorry “Dry,” it was a good run #punintended. Although given the momentum of the brand, I think it’s pretty much what we’re calling January in the beer biz these days anyway. And February, and … well, you get the gist.

RUSSIAN RIVER BREWING

Restaurant GM – Santa Rosa, CA

PHASE THREE BREWING

Director of Sales & Distro – Lake Zurich, IL

4 HANDS BREWING CO

According to the BI, the U.S. beer supply (both domestics and imports) was -4% vs. Nov. 2023. 

It’s -1.7% for the first 11 months of 2024, with summer being the primary drag.

Oddly, Mexican imports were the biggest reason for the November decline at -10.3% for the month, as the looming threat of tariffs in the Trump administration are making importers “deplete existing inventory in order to rebuild inventories with fresh supply in early 2025,” according to BI chief economist Andrew Heritage.

So, look for a potential bounceback come the January numbers this year.

As always, CONSTELLATION has yet to meet a calendar that can contain it … so this “quarter” represents Sept. thru Nov. 2024. 

But yeah, CONSTELLATION sold more beer again:

• BEER NET SALES: +3%
• SHIPMENTS (sales to wholesalers): +1.6%
• DEPLETIONS (sales to retailers): +3.2%

For the full FY25, which naturally ends in … February (maybe they’re based on the Mayan calendar? 🤔), CONSTELLATION is expecting beer net sales to be +4% to +7%.

But good ol’ wine and spirits still can’t find growth with both hands at CONSTELLATION in Q3:

• NET SALES: -14%
• SHIPMENTS (sales to wholesalers): -16.4%
• DEPLETIONS (sales to retailers): -4.3%

• Brewery and beverage incubator PILOT PROJECT is adding five more states of distro in the next six months, to hit 20 total. The IL & WI based company has gone from 500BBL a year to 70K BBL in a 5-year period, as it looks to expand the concept to more U.S. outposts, with SoCal and Nashville as the top prospects.
• DOGFISH HEAD is adding a 30 Minute Light IPA to its nationwide footprint this year. The “IPA” is coming in at 4% ABV and 95 calories.
• The planned New England craft distributor merger between CRAFT COLLECTIVE and HOMEGROWN DISTRIBUTION is now street legal, forming uh, CRAFT COLLECTIVE HOMEGROWN DISTRIBUTION … so evidently they’re already saving money by not hiring a branding agency.
• The TTB approved new fill sizes for wine products, including 16 oz. and 19.2 oz., which also allows hard cider and mead producers to package their 7% ABV+ products in these formats too. Although personally, I’m looking forward to finally being able to crack open a tallboy of Pinot Gris after a hard day at the office. 🍷

HARPOON co-founder and CEO Dan Kenary and FINESTKIND CEO Steve Kierstead join the pod this week to talk all things BARREL ONE COLLECTIVE, including:

• How the deal arose
• Plans for growth and what kind of partners they’re looking for
• The vision for the platform, approach to new innovation and more

PLUS: Justin & Jess dive into the evolving history of New England craft beer deals, the Real American Beer deal and the surgeon general’s new advisory for bev-alc.

This week’s beer goes out to … the last week of 2024! And not just because both myself and the BREWBOUND team were still working (and yes, we get beers too 🍻).

But, after the uh … “year that was” 🥴 for the bev-alc business in 2024, sales for the last week of the year were +5.9%, according to CIRCANA data for the week ending December 29. Volume was also +1.9%.

See? Everything’s just fine! And yes, beer itself was up too (although liquor and wine had much bigger increases). 

Wait, what’s that? Discrepancies between the 2 years because of when the holidays fell on the calendar causing “choppiness” in the comps? Well then … no beer for you, good sir! 

I’ll see myself out … with your beer.

Slainté!

-Sean McNulty