Beer Marketer's Insights - Yuengling JV Entering WI Early Next Yr; Went With MC Network; Not Legacy Coors Distribs

Next yr, Yuengling will continue expanding in midwest, expanding JV with Molson Coors into Miller's home state Wisconsin as well as completing its DG Yuengling rollout into Michigan. The Yuengling JV will roll into WI with draft in Feb, package in Mar. That's similar to rollout schedule it employed in IL this yr. As usual in JV mkts, Yuengling will go to all MC distribs. But there will be a couple of twists specific to WI mkt. In unconsolidated territories, JV chose legacy Miller distribs General Wholesale and Triangle, not legacy Coors distribs Lee and Kay. Recall, an increasing amount of Yuengling is brewed in MC's Milwaukee brewery in last coupla yrs. Yuengling brewed a total of 42K bbls there in 2024. That's up to 118K bbls thru Sep 2025, according to state stats. A good chunk of that likely shipped to IL, tho IL distribs get Yuengling product from Ft Worth as well. Yuengling already well over 2 mil cases in IL, said a source. It got 3 share or more in many parts of IL, INSIGHTS hears (tho not Chi). Draft generally doing better than packaged, sources say. Could Yuengling sell close to 3 mil cases in IL in yr 1? That alone could add 8-9% to Yuengling total. And DG Yuengling entered key football mkts in MI this fall (Ann Arbor, East Lansing, Detroit), adding even more all incremental barrelage.In natl on-prem CGA data, Yuengling $$ were up 0.5% for 52 wks thru Sep 6, clearly getting a boost from newer mktsYet Yuengling volume still down 7% nationally off-premise in Circana multi-outlet + convenience data yr-to-date thru Nov 2. Down 1.1 mil cases, 6.9% to 14.6 mil cases, tracked by Circana. And it's down 7% for 4 weeks and 6.3% for 12 weeks too (after MI had kicked in). Suggests that Yuengling down significantly more in established mkts, tho PA and NJ not in scan data. Yuengling Lager is most of tracked biz, about 10 mil cases, or 68% of biz, down 5%. Yuengling Flight volume down 4% to 2.4 mil cases YTD in Circana MULC. But it cut prices by $1 per case to $28.86 (i.e. below Ultra) and $$ down 7%. Flight up to 16% of Yuengling's off-prem volume. Rest of Yuengling biz down double digits in this data set.

Yuengling JV Entering WI Early Next Yr; Went With MC Network; Not Legacy Coors Distribs

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