Well they might not have gotten a license to sell alc bevs at Burger King in Florida, but the Brazilians who have big stakes in ABI certainly won’t be going hungry. Jorge Paolo Lemann listed at $12 bil on Forbes List, while Marcel Telles at $5.7 bil and Carlos Alberto Sicupira listed at $5.2 bil. Each listed slightly lower than last yr, even tho ABI stock up 27% in last 12 mos. Forbes calculates stock values based on worth on Feb 14 of any given yr. ABI up 21% for 12 mos thru Feb 14. So unknown why they calculate drop in their net worth to $23 bil between ‘em. After Jorge Paolo, next biggest beer billionaire on list is 35 yr old Alejandro Santo Domingo Davila, #97 at $9.5 bil, as “the face of his father’s Santo Domingo Group” which owns 14% of SABMiller. His father, Julio Mario Santo Domingo Pumarego passed away last Oct. Next up is Heineken heiress Charlene de Carvalho, listed at $7.7 bil, up slightly from last yr. Not beer, but many beer distribs sell Red Bull and Red Bull founder Dietrich Mateschitz listed at $5.2 bil. Speaking of beer distribs, biggest beer distribs in US, Chris and Jude Reyes of Reyes Holidngs, are each listed at $2.1 bil.

Who sez the 3-tier system has no support? Florida ABC just ruled that Burger King cannot have a license to sell alc bevs for its higher-end Whopper Bar concept in Fla. Only 1 Whopper Bar in state for now and it had temporary license. But some industry members, specifically Fla Beer Wholesalers Assn (repping AB distribs in state) and Wine and Spirits Distribs of Fla, felt this was crack in separation of tiers. Why? Same Brazilians who have ownership interest in AB InBev have ownership interest in Burger King. Burger King petitioned state ABC, asking whether ownership structures prohibit BK from having vendor’s license. After dizzying trip through those ownership structures and Fla statute, ABC concluded that the “four cooperating individuals” – Peter Harf, Carlos Sicupira, Marcel Telles and Jorge Lemann -- indeed have “common interests” in the two co’s and so “create the connection” between BK Whopper Bar and AB. Thus, the “proposed business structure…prohibits” BK “from being issued a retail vendor’s license” for alc bevs. Sadly, Whopper Bar patrons will be limited to non-alc bevs, barring a successful appeal. But at least 3-tier separation remains.

Twenty out of 22 distribs chosen by New Belgium for its expansion into Mich in late Aug sell AB products, tho some smaller ones sell MillerCoors as well. NBB and these distribs apparently undaunted by AB’s recent talk of alignment, “anchor” distribs and selling practices that are “not acceptable” such as selling directly competitive brands (could be that AB doesn’t view NBB brands as competing directly with AB). “We have confidence in the 3-tier system, that there’s a separation,” NBB sales director Joe Menetre told our sibling publication Craft Brew News, which broke the story. “We continue to see great execution and focus” from AB distribs that sell NBB as well as other distribs. “If they continue to be independent, then we’ll continue to select them.”

Buy, buy and buy again. Many analysts already had “buy” ratings or at least “outperform” on ABI, but as reports came streaming in, they were even more gung ho than usual on ABI’s growing financial might. Here are just a few headlines: “2011 Solid, 2012 Will Be Even Better” (UBS), “An emerging topline story: Strong 2011 results bode well for 2012” (Redburn), “A Top Line Leg to US Upside” (Morgan Stanley), “ABI Strong Beat in F11…& Improving US Reinforce Case for Outperform” (Bernstein). And one of most recent, an upgrade from CLSA’s Caroline Levy entitled: “Here We Go (to Buy).” Many of these reports focused on early 2012 improvements in US sales, not 4% 4th qtr drop. Collectively, they represented a pretty striking contrast to underwhelming response to Molson Coors Investor Day. Their wholesalers might not yet love ‘em, but the financial community sure does.

Solid early-2012 numbers continue. Import shipments up 127,000 bbls, 6.6% in Jan. And that was against tuff comp, +11% in Jan 2011. Add import gain to domestic brewers’ 680,000-bbl increase and US shipments up 800,000 bbls, 5.4% to kick off 2012. Yet another positive data point for Jan: exports by US brewers jumped 52,000 bbls, 29%.

Mexican shipments drove Jan import gain. Up 133,000 bbls, 14%. Irish and UK shipments jumped. Up 35,000 bbls, 46% and 22,000 bbls, 47% respectively. Belgian shipments took a breather, +7,000 bbls, 7.4%. But Dutch down 34,000 bbls, 9%. Canadian shipments down 9% too. And German shipments nose-dived 35,000 bbls, 36% as Beck’s now US-produced.

Join us May 15-16 in Chicago at the Ritz Carlton for another deep dive into the growing, dynamic high end: craft beer, imports, FMBs/PABs, cider and more. We’ll have a full-day of presentations plus plenty of networking time and lots of focus on craft. You won’t want to miss our top-notch, wide-ranging panel, including 3 leading execs of high end beer cos. Heineken USA president Dolf van den Brink will join Crown Imports president Bill Hackett, Boston Beer chairman Jim Koch, wholesaler Joe Salois of Atlas and HEB’s biz development mgr-beer Rusty Woodland. This unprecedented panel will be moderated by consultant Bump Williams. Also speaking will be New Belgium co-founder/ceo Kim Jordan and Diageo Guinness USA president Sheila Stanziale. Crispin Cider president/founder Joe Heron will speak on emerging cider category. And we’ve recently added Simon Thorpe, ceo of Duvel Moortgat USA and Ommegang to speak on emerging “luxury” or ultrapremium segment in hi-end. BMI publisher Benj Steinman will set up the day with data and insights. And there’s more to come. Click here for more information. Click here to sign up.

Rare NABCA session to feature retailers revealed strategy, figures for 2 giant chains, off premise drug store Walgreens and Darden restaurants. Recall, Walgreens, with 7800 locations, $72 bil annual sales and 6.1 mil consumers daily, decided to get back into alc bev biz in 2009. In what hadda be a world record, Walgreens managed to obtain 5,550 licenses (39 states, DC and Puerto Rico) in less than 2 yrs, said Erin Neff. A coupla new twists. Flagship locations in NYC and Chi sell (very) high end wines, sushi, have barristas, etc. Chi store has on-premise license, not in use yet but Walgreens has plans for sampling events. Walgreens also wants to work alc bevs into its Web Pickup program that allows customers to preorder over the ‘net, drive to store and have order brought to car. All in, alc bevs just 1% of store sales, but Walgreens obviously a serious player. Among its challenges: different applications/processes/time lines in different states; compiling data for corporate officers whose names are on license (including huge “fingerprint party”); compliance, training; preparing and vetting alc offers in weekly flyers for stores across the country, all with different restrictions.

Darden chain – 1,950 Red Lobster, Olive Garden, Capital Grille and more outlets in 50 states, all company owned, none franchised – have a lot of same issues, said Coleen Hunter. Darden renews many hundreds of licenses annually, and adds dozens of outlets/yr. Big issue for Darden is jurisdictions that limit # of licenses or may count ‘em differently. As at Walgreens, Darden focus not alcohol, but food; still sells plenty of alc bevs. Darden does all of its own training, but faces challenge of states, counties, cities adding their own restrictions/requirements for 3d-party training. Darden tends to be “conservative” when it comes to alc bev promos, Coleen said, so some creative mktg plans get “crushed.” Darden seeks more input from regulators, especially re social media to stay “safe.” Noted some innovative on-premise ideas like spirits infusion, on-site fermentation, but wonders if they’re legal everywhere.

Following Oct price hike, AB had tuff 5% shipments decline and 4.1% sales-to-retailer drop in 4th qtr. For full yr, AB STRs down 3% in 2011, virtually same as MC and Heineken USA. Shipments down 3.25 mil bbls, 3.2% (slightly steeper than INSIGHTS estimated). AB US bbls (including exports) down to about 98.5 mil bbls. That’s 9.5 mil bbls, 8.9% below 2008 total. Wow! Big numbers. Yet at same time, ABI jumped AB’s EBITDA margin from under 30 to over 40% in 3 yrs, which ceo Brito called “remarkable.” ABI North American EBITDA up by $2 bil in that time to $6.6 bil, tho up just 1.5% in 2011. Total global EBITDA over $15 bil, up 7.7% on organic basis. ABI beat analyst expectations and stock up 2% this morn to about 52 Euros. It’s up almost 30% in last 12 mos. ABI currently has mkt cap of nearly $110 bil.

Rev per bbl up 3.1% in US in 2011, 3.3% in 4th qtr. That included 26 basis points attributed to mix improvement as high end brands grew rapidly, especially AB’s Mission 6 brands, led by Stella up 24% to over 1.1 mil bbls and Shock Top up 96% to 500,000 bbls. Leffe also up 50%, Goose Island up more than 20%. Michelob Ultra up 5.9% in 2011. Stella and Ultra gained about ¼ share point between ‘em, according to ABI.

“Despite a difficult year,” North American prexy Luiz Edmond said in a statement, “with industry declines and our subpremium brands losing share as expected…. Bud Light maintained share…attaining record brand health and we continue our progress” on efforts to “stabilize the brand” Budweiser. Bud grew 3% globally and almost 44% of its volume now not from US, up from 28% back in 2008.

In last week’s article on new brands, our sub-head “Half of Class of 08 Already Out” perhaps implied half of all new brands from 08 had already exited the mkt. But as text noted, we were talking about Top 15 New Brands for that yr, and indeed 8 of them are no more. Also, Symphony IRI Group does not track pouches in malt beverages, but it does track them under the premixed cocktail category.

Dos Equis’ “Most Interesting Man in the World” campaign is entering its 6th yr, “with a few new wrinkles that include exposing” character’s “dark side,” according to Ad Age cover story. For 1st time “a few spots will run for Dos Equis Amber,” which accounts for about 30% of sales. Ads started regionally in West, but campaign went natl in 09. Dos Equis spots became “a campaign that would break the beer advertising mold,” wrote mag. Most Interesting Man campaign has helped drive brand’s volume growth by staying consistent and Dos Equis doubled over last 5 yrs to over 15 mil cases, Heineken USA said. The campaign “has stuck to the same formulas even as it has passed through multiple brand directors and agency” execs, noted Ad Age. “More than anything else, drinkers really wanted to be seen as interesting by their friends,” said Paul Smailes, sr brand dir. They went with older character vs young and hip, because person “needed to be someone to work toward vs a mirror of themselves” for core consumers, added Paul. With popularity of campaign, Heineken USA “has turned down plenty of offers” for character played by actor Jonathan Goldsmith to make appearances, so as not to overshadow Dos Equis. “You want to make sure the awareness is around the brand, instead of the awareness of the character,” said Kheri Holland Tillman, vp trade mkting and sales strategy.