Dogfish Head “shipped 28% more beer to a smaller footprint” in 1st qtr, sales veep Adam Lambert said in detailed blog post/release yesterday. “We now sell over 52% of our beer in six states within 150 miles of the state of Delaware,” Adam said. Dogfish’s “current sales pace will allow us to finish 2012 at our anticipated goal of over 171,000 bbls shipped.” Dogfish just “broke ground” on $52 mil, 18-mo expansion project that will allow it to grow to 600,000 bbls.
Another top 15 craft brewer, Brooklyn Brewery, expects to grow 30% to 180,000 bbls in 2012, founder Steve Hindy told CBS News. It’s up 36% in 1st qtr, noted coo Eric Ottoway in a followup with INSIGHTS. Brooklyn’s growth “comes on top of the biggest price increase we’ve ever taken,” noted Eric, but unfortunately “most of it just covers the increase in raw materials costs.” Eric adds: “What’s crazy is that this growth is still capacity constrained.” Brooklyn “just pulling the trigger on Phase III of the expansion to bring our total capacity here in Brooklyn to 100,000 bbls, but that won’t come on line until Q1 2013.”
Trends for other major craft brewers either prettty much on par or even faster than last yr. Sierra up 18.5% and New Belgium up around 20% in 1st qtr, the brewers told our sibling publication Craft Brew News. And of course Lagunitas still up around 50%. These are some pretty heady trends to keep in mind as some 4500 folks descend on San Diego for the Craft Brewers Conference next week.
Now in its 7th yr of growth, Coors Banquet is “getting some traction,” associate brand mgr David Coors told INSIGHTS this morn. He and his Dad Pete, currently MillerCoors chairman, are on a “road trip” for a week, reenacting 1970s journey of the Coors Banquet brand from West to East as well as brand’s history and limited edition commemorative heritage cans. They are adding “fuel to the fire” for brand, said David. Pete and David made about a half dozen mkt visits in last week, visiting with distribs and retail accounts, tapping into what distribs view as an underutilized asset, the Coors name. Today, they are in NYC, where surprisingly MC does 12% of Banquet volume, according to David. What started as value play with low-priced 24 oz cans is now building more equity with pricing and volume up high single digits in NYC, said David.
The road trip also got lengthy play in Ad Age, including some interesting reflections by Pete on Bud Light Platinum and products like it. Traditionally, said Pete “we philosophically said we don’t want to be in the high alcohol business…. Now we may not be able to avoid that... but it’s a very ticklish thing because the taxation on wine and spirits and beer are different. We don’t want to play in a place where we begin to confuse that.”
Click here to read briefs from AB and Illinois distributor associations in the US District Court litigation over whether AB can have a branch in Chicago.
