Heineken USA continues to ramp up investments into professional soccer as its popularity in US continues to rise.  As an extension of broader “Soccer Is Here” campaign, HUSA partnered with Google to launch “a mobile website [soccerishere.com] that allows fans to find out which bars are showing matches featuring their favorite teams,” reported AdAge.  Recall, in Jan 2015 HUSA entered multi-year sponsorship deal with MLS and launched “Soccer Is Here” campaign this yr in Mar featuring David Villa, Carli Lloyd (“first female athlete to be a spokeswoman for beer”) and Landon Donovan. 

Starting out in only New York City, Heineken’s “identified nearly 200 soccer bars” in the 5 boroughs and is “halfway toward its goal of signing them all up with the program,” Heineken brand manager Rob Ryder told mag.  The site utilizes Google Maps interface and Google search functions to allow fans to search “by league, match or venue” for bars airing matches from UEFA (Union of European Football Associations) Champions League, English Premier League, Spanish league La Liga and Major League Soccer (MLS).  Gotta note, HUSA up in NYC area this year, INSIGHTS understands, albeit against easy comps after lengthy transition into Manhattan Beer last yr.  HUSA “will consider expanding the program to other cities if it proves popular,” said Rob.

This is another example of how cos “are increasingly using their marketing to provide services to consumers, rather than just awareness advertising,” AdAge noted.   To that note, co “also plans to partner with Daily Mail for a contest in which fans can vote for the best soccer bar in New York City.” HUSA “will support the initiative with a substantial digital media buy” as well, “using geo-targeted search, display and video ads,” HUSA digital media manager Betsy Paynter added.  

After touting support for equal pay for women earlier this summer, The Bud Light Party campaign is moving on to its next issue, reminding consumers not to label others, in this case the transgender community. In new spot, comedians/actors Seth Rogen and Amy Schumer declare that the Bud Light party “is for everyone,” including men, women and “people of all genders.”  “From the start of our campaign at Super Bowl, The Bud Light Pary has rallied around bringing people together,” noted brand veep Alex Lambrecht. “In our newest spot, Seth and Amy remind Americans that labels belong on beer, not people – a message Bud Light proudly supports,” added Alex.  “When a brand like Bud Light shows support for the transgender community, it makes a difference,” said Nick Adams, GLAAD’s Dir of Transgender Medical. “Not only does it help bring more visibility to the trans community, it also inspires other companies to do more and show their support.”  “Alcohol brands have long lent support to the gay community, which is a key constituency for liquor and beer marketers,” Ad Age noted. “Expressing solidarity with transgender people is relatively new terrain,” but “not unprededented” as Absolut had a transgender storyline in ad earlier this year and Nike had ad featuring Olympic athlete Chris Mosier, the first openly transgender athlete on U.S. team.

So far this campaign hasn’t translated into better sales trends for leading light brand, despite increased expenditures and multiple iterations. Bud Light case volume has slipped 2.4%, 0.6 share in Nielsen data YTD thru Jul 30. Meanwhile, Coors Light and Miller Lite also have new, less expansive, campaigns.  Coors Light volume up 0.5%, off just .03 share and Miller Lite volume down 0.3%, and it lost .07 share. 

Bud Light Goes Retro for a Night; Olympics Ratings Not Delivering Beyond its year-long “Campaign” spots, Bud Light is targeting hot cable shows like “Mr Robot” on the USA network.  Last week during a show that flashed back to the 90’s, the theme carried over into ad time with a 1990 Bud Light commercial using “Everything else is just a light,” tagline. That spot from 26 yrs ago, was “part of the beer giant’s broader campaign that eventually helped it dethrone Miller Lite as the best-selling light beer,” recalled Ad Age.  Another advertising footnote, at Olympics Americans are racking up medals but not ratings, down 15.5% thru first 9 nights compared to London games in 2012. “Of particular concern is a roughly 30% drop among viewers age 18-34, a demographic advertisers pay a premium to reach,” reported Wall Street Journal. 

Heart of America Bev Co (Ferguson family) will “merge” with Premium Bev Sales (Gelner family) in southwest Mo, Heart of America announced today.  This will consolidate Miller and Coors in another mid-sized mkt.  Premium sells about 850,000 cases in Springfield (mainly Miller brands, Pabst, Ballast Point etc), while Heart of America sells 3 mil cases, across a broader swath of the state.  This deal will push co “to the brink” of 4 mil cases, noted HoA.  Combined co will retain Heart of America name, employ more than 200 people, represent over 45 suppliers.  Its mgt team will take several execs from families of each distrib.  Now Heart of America will be able to “consolidate our footprint, bringing all of our suppliers to every part of our market,” said chairman Jim Ferguson.  Deal expected to close Oct 24, 2016.  

Hong Kong based hedge fund Tybourne Capital Mgt upped its stake in Boston Beer to 10% last week, according to an SEC filing.  It has 912,000 shares, up from 767,000 shares, reported Insider Monkey.  That 10% is a “big number,” said Wall St source and is “odd,” according to another.  It’s not usual to see a hedge fund taking that big a stake in a co.  Why is Tybourne investing so heavily in Boston Beer, especially when its Boston investment represents almost 15% of $1.2 billion in total under mgt?   Boston Beer stock peaked at $315 about 18 months ago, then fell by more than 50% to a low of  $150.  It has since climbed about 25%, back to $188, including up another 3% today.  Recall, stock rallied after Boston Beer Q2 results were slightly better than Wall St expected, but  sales to retailers dropped 5% in 1^st half.  So Tybourne Capital is not likely buying Boston as a growth story.  Is it expecting some kind of transaction or did Tybourne just think Boston stock represented good value? Tybourne hasn’t said.  But some on Street have speculated that selling is Boston’s best shot for significant upside to stock.  Over weekend, Motley Fool took a completely different tack.  It featured article that suggested Boston should go private and be like Yuengling. “Boston Beer needs to focus on its beer to restore growth, and that might mean doing so out of the public spotlight,” wrote the Fool.  On other hand, a couple of mos back, Bloomberg article suggested Boston could sell to Constellation, naming it as “one suitor that just might be able to lure” founder Jim Koch to the “negotiating table.” Recall, Jim controls the voting stock.  

“Craft beer made this home brewer a billionaire,” headlined CNN Money this morn, citing Forbes list that estimated Sierra Nevada founder Ken Grossman’s “personal wealth” at $1.1 bil. (Bloomberg had already ranked him as a billionaire in list that appeared last yr.)  Forbes ranks him as #509 wealthiest on US list and #1694 in the world. “Company revenues grew to $300 million in 2015,” notes Forbes.  Not bad for a former hippie home brewer, who started way back when. “In 1980, there were roughly 45 companies making beer,” Ken told CNNMoney. “It was pretty much the low point in the U.S. brewing industry after prohibiton.”  Now literally thousands have followed Ken and other pioneering craft brewers, with more still coming every day.  And Ken “hasn’t lost his passion for brewing,” notes CNN.  “I love the alchemy, the science, the flavors, the creativity,” he said. “There’s just so much to like about making beer.”  Ken is also “keenly aware of Sierra Nevada’s environmental impact,” sez Forbes.  “More than 10,000 solar panels are installed at the original Chico, California brewery, and 99.8% of the facility’s waste is recycled.”  

MC will acquire a majority of Revolver Brewing in Granbury, Tex, it announced this morn. With this deal,  MC has struck 3 craft deals since July 20. It has officially entered craft M&A in a much bigger way.  First, it struck deal to acquire majority of Terrapin in Georgia, then Hop Valley in OR and now Revolver in TX.  All in less than 1 month.  Those 3 craft brewers sold about 120,000 bbls in 2015.  Including last yr’s acquisition Saint Archer in San Diego (35,000 bbls in 2015), that makes 4 totaling 155,000 bbls of last yr’s volume. That would already be in top 25 craft brewers on our list.  Those 4 will likely exceed 200,000 bbls this yr.  And MC likely ain’t done yet. So the outlines of a MillerCoors craft strategy begin to emerge.  MC has gone for smaller, locally strong, geographically dispersed brewers, most of which have a notable focus on hoppy beers (tho Revolver’s main brand, Blood & Honey is an exception. It’s a wheat ale).      

Revolver founded only in 2012, quickly grew in the ranks of Dallas/Fort Worth craft brewers.  It more than doubled last yr in IRI foodstores in Dallas/Fort Worth to become the #7 craft brewer in local supers.  Revolver grabbed a 3.2 share of craft $$ there.  In available data this yr, Revolver up 33% thru May 1.  More details in Craft Brew News.  

Lotsa legal commentary in recent mos around 3-tier issues and ongoing legal battles bein’ fought by Texas Alc Bev Comm (TABC), involving very powerful companies. They include Wal-Mart, FEMSA and McLane Co. Several cases challenge decisions by TABC to reject bids for retail or distrib licenses. One involves Tex co Cadena which is subsidiary of FEMSA, Mexican co that owns huge c-store chain (Oxxo) south of the border. Cadena wanted to get in same biz in Tex. But TABC filed protest to Cadena’s application for retail license since FEMSA also owns 20% of Heineken. Tex tied house law bars cross-ownership of tiers. TABC’s decision upheld in admin and court proceedings so far, tho still on appeal in Tex Sup Ct. Separately, huge distribution co McLane tried to get alc bev distrib license in Tex back in 2011. TABC protested that application for same reason: McLane owner Berkshire Hathaway has 2% stake in Wal-Mart and undisclosed (less than 1%) stake in Costco, two big retailers in Tex. Those stakes, sez TABC, are tens of millions of shares and Wal-Mart stake worth well over $4 bil. McLane withdrew its application, and never pursued process to get license, but earlier this yr sued TABC. Citing testimony from TABC’s licensing director in the Cadena case, McLane argued that TABC has a “one-share rule,” hypothetically barring anyone from owning a single share of a retailer, wholesaler and/or supplier. Lawsuit not only attacked rule but also said Tex did not enforce it fairly since lotsa pension funds, including those covering TABC employees, have cross-ownerships. At recent Natl Conf of State Liq Admins, atty for McLane argued passionately that this “extreme, absurd, irrational” one-share rule leads to “naked favoritism” and is indeed a “serious threat to the defensibility of the 3-tier system” itself. Eyebrows rose. There is No One-Share Rule, Sez TABC But from TABC perspective, there is no “one-share” rule in Tex. In response to McLane, TABC refers to “so called…made-up…hypothetical one-share rule,” and insists “the one-share rule is not a rule at all, and McLane is not a one-share applicant.” For this, and other reasons, TABC wants fed ct to dismiss McLane’s lawsuit “with prejudice” and not allow McLane to “litigate a hypothetical, counter-factual scenario.” TABC has never promulgated, announced or enforced a one-share rule, it sez, and never “taken any regulatory action based on the ownership of a single share of stock across industry tiers.” In TABC’s view, McLane seized on brief testimony by its licensing director during Cadena case hearing. She was asked if Tex law created exception to cross-tier ownerships or if prohibitions would apply to 20%, 10%, 1% and even a single share. She said “yes,” [the prohibitions would apply] “but that’s not the case” with Cadena. She was not asked if TABC would “enforce tied-house provisions in a case involving a single share of stock,” TABC points out. (It never has, it sez.) And “Ms. Harrison’s response to a hypothetical question during the Cadena administrative proceedings does not give rise to an ongoing violation of law,” TABC argues. Also, even if there were a one-share rule, since Berkshire’s owners “vastly exceed a single share, the Court cannot conclude…that McLane suffered, or will certainly suffer future injury, as a result of the so-called one-share rule.” This lack of injury is another reason, TABC sez, McLane case should be tossed. There are other aspects to TABC’s arguments and McLane’s actions (it challenged applications of 2 other co’s it sez have cross ownerships). But TABC’s argument is basically that there is no one-share rule and even if there were, Berkshire’s tens of millions of shares in massive retailers makes it an entirely different situation altogether.

Constellation Brands Beer Division grabbed a whoppin’ 1.5 incremental share of $$ to fully 11 share for 4 weeks thru Jul 30 in Nielsen all-outlet. That’s gotta be another record. Now up 1.2 share of $$ yr-to-date. What’s more, Constellation Beer’s total $$ sales actually slightly bigger than entire craft segment in last 4 weeks; $326.5 mil to $323.7 mil. Craft gained much less share of $$ too; just 0.4 share of $$ YTD, 0.3 for 4 weeks. Over half of Constellation growth from Modelo Especial, which grew $$ sales 32% and gained 0.8 share in last 4 weeks. Corona also returned to double digit growth and gained 0.4 share of $$ last 4 weeks. Meanwhile, AB dropped 1.2 share of $$, even with Michelob Ultra up 0.7 share. And MC dropped 0.9 last 4 weeks. For AB, that’s about same $$ share loss as yr-to-date, for MC it’s steeper.

Recall that US govt indicted 2d largest liquor/wine distrib in US, Republic Natl Dist Co (RNDC) and 3 employees back in May for allegedly conspiring with handful of Md retailers to resell product in NY, evading NY’s higher excise tax (see May 25 Express).  Govt sought judgment of $9 mil. RNDC faced additional fine and employees faced long prison terms for wire fraud.  RNDC just filed stinging motion to dismiss, charging US Atty and fed agent (his wife) with “repeated and flagrant misconduct” in case, including false testimony, “improper investigatory tactics” and “vindictive and retaliatory prosecution” in bid to put RNDC out of biz.  In RNDC’s view, combo of no crime being committed by RNDC, govt’s failure to allege key elements of the offenses and its misconduct “warrants dismissal of the indictment.”   

RNDC memo suggests that, at most, a couple of “low level” employees may have known that handful of retailers intended to resell liquor bought in Md, from RNDC and a “Second Wholesaler” who was not indicted.  US Atty originally blew this up into charges of intl money laundering, which fed judge regarded as “highly questionable at best,” charges that were ultimately dropped.  Back in 2012, govt got seizure warrant for $50 mil, all of which RNDC got back after court proceedings.  Because RNDC did not “buckle” and refused to pay “a large and arbitrary cash payment,” govt sought the grand jury indictment handed down in May, RNDC believes. 

RNDC points out that Md laws and 3-tier system in general keep biz tightly regulated, that RNDC followed Md law to a tee and that indictment represents effort by fed prosecutor “to unilaterally impose upon liquor wholesalers duties that are unknown in the state regulatory scheme that has been in place for more than eighty years.”  Indeed, indictment alleged RNDC committed a crime by not cutting off retailers simply based on allegations of out of state sales.  Govt had no evidence of any conspiracy, RNDC points out, and RNDC had no way of knowing whether NY taxes eventually paid on any out-of-state sales.  Indeed, 3 tier system was devised, RNDC argues, to prevent the kind of “wholesaler/retailer integration” that prosecutor’s “new regulatory scheme” tried to impose.  What’s more, the “single material falsehood” govt uses to support its charges, a reliance on Md reporting requirements, is itself “false.”  The US atty himself “made it 

Just 3 years after Gallup announced the supposed “stunning collapse of beer” in US, 43% of American drinkers told the polling group that they choose beer most often, the highest number since 2002. That’s also over 10 points ahead of wine, more than twice number who said they drink liquor most often. So beer clearly “American Drinkers’ Beverage of Choice,” Gallup reported. As always with these survey results, factor in a possible 4-pt margin of error and these preferences have changed very little over last couple decades. While just less than a quarter of men and women prefer liquor, gender split is much clearer for both beer and wine. About 54% of men surveyed between 2010-2016 said they prefer beer, down a touch from 57% between 2001-2009. About 20% of men prefer wine or liquor. Similarly, half of women surveyed between 2010-2016 prefer wine, up a couple points from earlier respondents. That’s more than twice the number of women who prefer beer. Another set of consistent results: about 2/3 of Americans say they “have occasion” to drink. Half of drinkers report drinking 1-7 drinks in the last week, with an average just below 4 drinks (survey takers tend to underreport drinking). Finally, only 19% told Gallup they believe moderate drinking is “good for health,” up slightly vs last yr’s survey.  Fully 26% believe moderate drinking is “bad for health,” while about half of respondents say they think moderate drinking “makes no difference” regarding health.  That’s been pretty stable since 2001.