Yuengling promoted Pat Pikunas to new position of vp sales. Pat previously division sales manager in mid-Atlantic got the nod.  “There’s more to come,” Yuengling coo Dave Casinelli told INSIGHTS this morn, as Yuengling has “recommitted” to “build out” its organization to “get to where we need to get.” For example, in past 12 mos, Yuengling has increased its sales force by 24%.  In past, Yuengling has spent way more on cap ex than on sales/mktg org, creating a bit of an “imbalance,” acknowledged Dave.  But Yuengling has now begun to “twist that dial” the other way as owner Dick Yuengling “willing to commit” more resources to build out that part of organization.

"The industry's getting better," Tamarron Consulting's Greg Hopkins said in his opening presentation at the Supply Chain and Operations Leadership Conference in Denver yesterday. But that's happening "in an environment" where the industry is "getting more complex faster than it's getting better." Greg took that learning away from results of Tamarron's most recent Supply Chain Performance Survey, which showed that, where operations are concerned, distributor respondents rated suppliers lower than in previous years in "every bucket of capabilities." Further, "we don't think you're ready," Greg said to summarize distribs answers to a new set of forward-looking questions.  Telling for Greg: just 20% of folks rated efficiency of supply chain at 90% or above. And when asked to reflect on the past, distribs told Tamarron in relatively equal portions that ops have "improved," "stayed the same" and "declined." That's a red flag for Greg, who believes it's "not possible" for more than half of distribs to believe that operations have stayed the same or declined 10 years from now, "without a lot of chaos."

The program of case studies examined how specific vendors have helped distributors or suppliers sort through their own chaos. But Greg set up the base-line complexity early: more suppliers, more brands, more SKUs. And "we're not going to be able to stop this trend," he said, "we're not going to be able to go back." Panelists mentioned "SKU proliferation" repeatedly, at times attaching varying degrees of frustration with the circumstances. Yet facing that challenge and encouraging change in the face of it became the other common denominator through the morning's presentations. And moderator Ron Ward of Origlio Beverage identified the need to change perceptions early, first calling fast-growing SKU counts a "common problem" before re-phrasing it as a "common issue."

"We want the SKUs. We want to grow. We know that's the way the industry is growing," Tom Turcotte of DeCrescente Distributing said. So his co's work with PDC Inc, helping to re-configure its warehouse and plan for a new one, allowed the distrib to be "agile enough to handle the small SKUs, big enough to handle the big SKUs." Rob Sims of Craig Stein Beverages expressed satisfaction that the folks at Encompass Technologies "told us: you're looking at this the wrong way" and "you're thinking in the past." Implementing technology that increased efficiency, accuracy and employee morale has Rob and CSB "looking at changing everything" and "doing a lot of streamlining." In sharing best practices for implementing change, presenters keyed into the importance of identifying the right time for change. New Belgium's Brendan Beers discussed the 18-month process his co went through with Blue Horseshoe implementing and launching a total technology solution to manage warehousing, accounting and more in advance of breaking ground on its coming East Coast facility. "You always struggle with 'what I'm doing today is good enough, so when do I make this investment,'" Ron added, reminding that "when you're not an owner, it can be a career challenge making these recommendations."

This won’t exactly come as a shock, but AB has indeed picked  WPP’s Mediacom “to lead our connection strategy, media planning and buying,” said mktg veep Jorn Soquet.  That’s what ad trades had reported last week, but Ad Age issued correction as deal not finalized when initial report came out.  Now it’s official.   

Sometimes media jumps gun, so even reporting what other media have written can be risky biz as we found out last week.  Heineken USA deal with Major League Soccer is 5 yrs, not 4 as WSJ (and then we) reported….  Tho numerous Tex media outlets listed Giglio as buyer of Coors of Longview, it’s actually JV of Glazer’s and Giglio in northeast Tex called GG Distributing LLC….   Tho ad trades initially said ABI had deal with media planning agency MediaCom, that turned out to be not a done deal yet.  “In fact, we have not yet awarded our U.S. media planning and buying business to an agency partner,” mktg veep Jorn Soquet told Ad Age “and remain in talks with two finalists -- WPP's Mediacom and Publicis Groupe's Spark.”

Insiders have been telling us for mos that privatization in Pennsy increasingly less likely this yr, especially as current gov and big supporter Tom Corbett in very tuff re-election battle.  Radio station WESA concurs, noting late last week that the “once popular issue is now falling into the background” as Corbett “has spoken very little on the privatization of liquor” in campaign.  State House Repubs remain supportive, including majority leader.  But Senate Repubs not so much, more oriented to “modernizing” system to provide more consumer convenience.   Unchanged: challenge of getting many different industry, union, political interests to compromise on any proposed reform.   

Despite decent on-premise traffic trends (up 0.1% for 4 weeks), beer volume softened to down 3.4% on-premise for 4 weeks thru Oct 5, reported GuestMetrics.  Recall, off-premise also soft in same period; down 0.5% for 4 weeks thru Oct 5 in IRI.  At least $$ sales on-premise up 0.7% on “accelerated price/mix of 4.1%” noted GuestMetrics.  Yr-to-date, on-premise beer volume down 3.5%.  Premium light beers have lost almost 2 full share, 1.9% YTD, while craft up 2 full share.  But in most recent 4 weeks, premium lights lost 1.8 share while craft “slowed” to 1.6 share gain.  

Montejo has sold 41,000 cases yr-to-date thru Oct 5 in IRI multi-outlet + convenience in 4 states (CA, AZ, NM, TX).  That’s about 3,000 bbls, not very much in scheme of things for AB, especially since it laid-out long-range stretch objective of 1 share for brand (1 share nationally is about 2 mil bbls; in those states a little less than a half mil bbls).  Then again, it sold almost as much as Constellaton’s much-better known Victoria in those 4 states and 2x as much as HUSA’s Sol brand, according to a regional cut of IRI data.  So it ain’t nuttin’ either. 

Montejo got almost 1/10^th of 1 share point of $$ in 6 weeks in IRI in those 4 states.  But didn’t put a dent in Modelo Especial so far.  Modelo Especial $$ sales still up 27.5% during period.   And about 50x as large.  Still, AB sold 35,000 of those Montejo cases in just last 4 weeks.  That’s slightly more than it sold nationwide in IRI of Goose Island’s 312.  And it got 54% weighted distribution in those 4 states.  

The Massachusetts Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission initiated an investigation into Boston pay-to-play activity, according to today’s Boston Globe, something that hasn’t resulted in “enforcement actions” from the agency in 18 years. “Now that this incident has been brought to our attention, we are looking into it,” a spokesperson for state Treasurer (who oversees the agency) told the paper. The flurry of activity in Mass began late-late Monday night (technically Tuesday morning) when, via Twitter, Pretty Things Beer and Ale Project pointed to a pair of Boston bars with common ownership, alleging they don’t serve Pretty Things beer because the beer co won’t pay for tap space. The tweets struck a chord. Sympathetic industry members joined the fray, pointing to what they perceive as a much broader issue; consumer-facing media picked up the story, surprising and infuriating some. Others remained non-plussed. That the MABCC has taken up the issue does not mean any citations will be issued: allegations often come from “competing bars and are difficult to substantiate,” the Globe reminded, paraphrasing the agency. But as more and more instances of “pay to play” pop into the open (and are more talked about behind scenes), question is how forcefully regulators will respond, beyond investigations.

Coors of Longview (1.5 mil cases) is selling to MC distrib Giglio (over 6 mil cases), closing Oct 31, following a fire that caused extensive damage this summer.  “It was a combination of several things, but the fire is the deciding factor,” founder Les Kroeger, 76, told the Longview News, citing “cost to rebuild.”  Les “born and raised in the closest house to the Coors Brewing Co in Golden, Colorado,” he told KETK. Les worked for Coors during summers while he was in college, then spent 15 yrs with the brewery before he got his chance to open Coors distrib in Longview in 1975. 

This is at least the 3d MillerCoors consolidation in Tex this yr.  Earlier in yr, Andrews bought Coors of Fort Worth and Capitol Bevs and Wright formed JV and bought Saunders.  Like a lot of longtime, locally strong, beer guys (Les won Coors’ President award back in 2001), Les kinda wistful about leaving:  “It was the toughest decision I’ve ever made in my life,” he told KETK. “I hate to disappoint my employees because they’re great....  Miller had a bigger footprint in Texas than we did…. So not being the most wanted distributor not because of performance basically because of their footprint, I decided we needed to go ahead and move on.”   

Just as big global brewers havin’ trouble finding growth, biggest global distiller Diageo struggling as well.  Indeed, in qtr ending Sep 30, Diageo global volume down 3.5% and net sales dipped 1.5%.  Ain’t just one mkt.  In North America and Africa, Diageo dollar sales flat.  Dollars down 1.4% in Europe and Latin America/Caribbean and tumbled 7.4% in Asia Pacific, led by 20% drop in China where anti-corruption crackdown has really smacked liquor biz.  In another beer parallel, commenting on Diageo’s North American biz, ceo Ivan Menezes said “consumer demand for mainstream brands is still constrained by weak consumer confidence in average income households, while our reserve [high end] brands and our innovations continue to perform well.”  No secret Smirnoff Vodka “has been a problem for Diageo” in US, wrote Wall St Jnl, describing “Cocktail of Trouble for Liquor Makers.”  Remy and LVMH reported even softer trends in same qtr.  Not a peep about US beer in Diageo release, but latest IRI multi-channel off-premise scans show DGUSA volume off 5.9% for 13 wks thru Oct 5.