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Midway thru 2025, Maui's namesake brewery reached a major milestone in its home mkt. In all, Maui Brewing became "the sixth largest brand family in Hawaii" for 13 wks thru June 15 in Circana off-premise scans, prexy/COO of parent co Craft 'Ohana Scott Metzger told CBN. And that ain't just in craft. Up 9% to about 6 share of beer/cider/FMB $$ in state scans, the Maui brand fam now only sits behind Michelob, Heineken, Bud, Corona and Coors. To get there, it just passed fellow in-state craft player Kona (owned by AB on the mainland, but run separately in HI). But wait, there's more. Maui's hard seltzer "is still driving growth for us," Scott said, up around 20% YTD. And in last couple mos, its seltzer brands started dueling Boston Beer's Truly for the #2 seltzer brand in the state. With widely varying trends (Truly off double digits), Maui is set to overtake it too, if it hasn't already.In all, Maui depletions are up 9.2% nationwide YTD thru end of May, Scott told us. That trend should stick, he thinks. Co's "entering into the strong months and we have some great growth trends." So Scott and co expect Maui to end the yr about where it is now, up in "that 9-10 range." If that holds, it could place Maui volume north of 90K bbls this yr.Opening a 0.6-Pt Share Gap with Kona; Beer +5% at Home as 12 Pks Fly "We've kind of seen this coming," Scott said of the recent "intersection" with Kona and Maui becoming the top in-state brand. And for the same 13-wk period there's already a 0.6-pt gap between them, with Maui at 6.2 share and Kona at 5.6, Scott reported. So Maui went from "just below them to fairly significantly ahead of them." Price comes into play, he noted, with Maui "a whole four dollars a case higher." And again, seltzer is a core piece of the shift, at around a third of Maui's biz in HI. Then too, "Kona is probably still a little bit ahead of us on the on-premise side of things," Scott estimates, as "they have some appeal in some channels that maybe we're not quite right for" based on the more premium price, tho Maui is "gaining pretty quickly."Seltzer is growing faster, but Maui's beer biz is still up about 5% in Hawaii, which is "still fantastic for the category," Scott pointed out. "We're seeing our two biggest brands, Big Swell IPA and Bikini Blonde Lager, still continue to grow and thrive," he shared, especially in less developed 12 pks. That pack size for each brand is up about 30% YTD, he shared, each about half the $$ of 6 pks, "without seeing drastic cannibalization." And co's "fruit-forward beers are really growing significantly," too, "good to see," in Scott's view because they tend to be more "characteristic of our spirit and our brand" and "best embody that Hawaii sense of place." So co's Pineapple Mana Wheat is up 17%, while its orange, mango, guava-flavored OMG Hazy IPA is up 57%.Selling Island Vibes on the Mainland Across Segments; Fast Seltzer Gains Out West Scott sees a similar trend on the mainland. In beer, Bikini Blonde is co's top brand outside HI and "double the size of Pineapple Mana," the co's #2 on the mainland. But "Bikini Blonde is starting to give up some ground" while basically all of co's other brands are growing, especially OMG and its Coconut Hiwa Porter. On the seltzer side, "POG is where it's all at," or the Maui-born flavor combo of passionfruit, orange, guava. It's up 44% on the mainland, dominating single flavor sales outside HI. "What's working for our brand overall is just that sense of place and escapism," Scott thinks. So he expects to continue to see folks "gravitate towards the varieties that embody that best."Meanwhile, "our seltzer story is not unique to just Hawaii, either," Scott said. Nationwide, it's up 21% including +17% in CA, +34% in WA, +7% in OR, +65% in CO and up a whopping 150% in NV where it does "decent volume." In Scott's view, "it's not about the category," but "about the players within it." Lots of attention (and volume) has shifted from malt/sugar-based seltzer brands to spirits-based brands, of course. And Maui is playing there too. Co launched Maui Island Spirits RTDs in May. The vodka-soda type cocktails that are a bit "more flavor prevalent" than its hard seltzers and they're "off to a pretty decent start" with "increased distribution here happening throughout the summer," Scott reported.Looking for "Profitable Volume" Amid "Stellar Growth" All told, "we have this stellar growth," Scott knows, "but at the same time," the co is "severely logistically challenged." So lately, the mgmt team has been "thinking about the profitability of our footprint in ways that may cause us to revisit our growth strategy." Things like "tariffs or transportation costs or the costs of co-manufacturing" are all "real pressures on us that temper against this swell of consumer demand that we're seeing," Scott told us.Maui sells its brands in 26 states, but most of its biz is in about 5 or so. It's "starting to see some pick up" in states farther afield, like in the Southeast. In fact, a "top on-premise retailer in Georgia had us as a feature brand in May," Scott shared, and "we were their top performing craft beer for the month," outselling the top local brand and the "best performing brand in four years." While that's super encouraging to Maui, selling its beer that far away is "extremely costly" with the amount of margin lost to contract production on the mainland. So co is thinking carefully about identifying the "profitable volume that we need to focus on" and expects to start "talking with our wholesale partners about" where it can "dig in" and find the most success.

Maui Passed Kona in HI Scans to Reach #6 Brand Fam, Takes on Truly for #2 Seltzer; STRs +9% YTD

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