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This week in 2000, Detroit-area distrib Powers Dist, then a major Miller distrib, bought Coors and Molson brands totaling about 600K cases from Oak Dist (not same co as Oak/Boening in NY). That put Powers over 5 mil cases on annualized basis, mostly Miller brands. Rest of Oak's volume (a little less than 1/2 mil cases) went to Tri-County Beverage, a large All Others distrib, which had Coors in part of its territory. Tri-County owner Walt Wolpin also sold AB in a separate distrib elsewhere in Detroit. Powers sold to Reyes Beverage Group in 2021. This week in 2002, INSIGHTS noted that Diageo's long-expected sale of Burger King to private equity co Texas Pacific Group (TPG) came in 1/3 less fulfilling. Sale price of $1.5 bil was pared back from original $2.26 bil deal price announced earlier that year. Still, the sale of the burger chain was key to Diageo's "transformation from a food and beverages conglomerate into a focused spirits group," wrote Financial Times. The Brazilian 3G investors bought a majority of Burger King in 2010.This week in 2003, AB's "Real Men of Genius" radio ads for Bud Light, which highlighted off-the-wall honorees such as "Mr. Golf Ball Picker Upper," evolved into tv ads accounting for "40% of Bud Light's broadcast presence" in next 6 mos, reported Adweek. Two of 3 new tv ads had aired; one is a "virtual certainty" for Super Bowl, Bob Lachky, brand mgmt veep told mag. AB decided to expand "genius" ads after participants in "TV-orientated focus groups" kept raving about &#39;em. "Unaided awareness was extremely high," Bob said. "The moderator had to remind them we were asking them about TV." While sarcastic tone of ads seemed risky to some, "they were a home run" with consumers, said Bob.This week in 2004, Rocky Mountain News ran lengthy profile of Coors prexy Leo Kiely that named him Businessperson of the Yr in Colorado in spite of tough yr, and partly because of it. Citing "controversial" Molson Coors deal and "brutal" Senate campaign which attacked Coors the company, the paper's business editor said: "Kiely navigated well through some very troubled waters&hellip;. There was no close second" in voting. Turned out that tho Pete Coors' Senate campaign had little national effect on Coors Brewing, during closing weeks negative tv ads in CO portrayed Coors Brewing Co very harshly. "Had to hurt image in home state, tho Coors volume remains up slightly there," wrote INSIGHTS. "We responded," Leo told paper, "because it was really hurting our employees." The article didn't mention recent sudden departure of mktg honcho Ron Askew or ongoing 7-month search for US prexy.This week in 2006, as part of fallout of big (mostly) distilled spirits distrib deal in Massachusetts, buyer of United - Martignetti - sold off ~1 mil cases of mainly craft to AB network, most of which had previously been exclusive. Both Magic Hat and Sierra (about 330K cases total in '05) would now sell thru AB network in MA. Also, a handful of exclusive AB distribs added non-aligned brands for first time. Sheehan family (thru several operations) had long been non-exclusive exception. Besides adding territory on Magic Hat and Sierra, it gained big chunk of Boston Beer volume in part of its territory. Martignetti bought Quality and AB branch in Boston in the last couple yrs.This week in 2008, Boston Beer founder/ceo Jim Koch told both NY Times and US News and World Report that beer remained an "affordable luxury" and beer biz "recession-resistant," tho no biz "recession-proof." So far, Jim hadn't seen consumers cutting back on beer but added that "we're looking week by week at whether the economic situation is going to affect our drinkers." He told NY Times of recent encounter in Philly bar where server said high-end liquors takin' a hit. On another topic, Jim used same line in both articles when asked about now being America's largest independent brewer: "To me, this is like your kid's Little League team winning the World Series because nobody else showed up."This week in 2009, INSIGHTS noted how ABI was really getting way out in front of its debt payments. AB had made another early payment of $3.7 bil, "using proceeds from the recent sale of breweries and theme parks," wrote St Louis Biz Jnl. Payment went towards facility "C" maturing in 2011. Originally at $13 bil, that facility was paid down to $5.2 bil so far. Of its original $55 bil in acquisition loans, ABI had only $17.2 bil outstanding. "Can that be? Paid off $38 bil in little more than a year? Staggering," wrote INSIGHTS.This week in 2015, Heineken USA announced a multi-year deal with ESPN for Dos Equis "to become the Official Beer Sponsor of the College Football Playoff," starting the next season. Deal was for ~$14-16 mil per year, according to Sports Biz Journal. "This marks HUSA's largest (and continued) investment in US sports, as well as a continued trend where smaller beer brands push their way into sports that were once off limits," noted INSIGHTS.

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