AB volume down 16.5% nationally and Bud Light brand down 28.6% for 4 weeks thru Jun 3 in NielsenIQ data and still down 28%+ in latest week thru Jun 3. Period includes the week before and after Memorial Day and has to be one of most difficult holidays ever for Anheuser Busch and its wholesalers. AB $$ sales down 12.5% for 4 weeks and lost 4.7 share to 30. That may be the softest 4-week trend for Bud Light so far. AB's $15.00 off coupons and other promotions had little to no impact in the marketplace. And Bud Light trends continued into Jun, with some distribs reporting even steeper declines in Jun.

It's the end of an era and another tuff look for craft beer. Sapporo-owned Anchor Brewing "will halt national distribution of all of its beers," including signature Anchor Steam, slashing its sales footprint down to only California, SF Chronicle reported over the weekend. Then too, the brewer is "canceling Christmas this year" too, cutting Anchor Christmas Ale from its seasonal offerings and ending the beer's annual run since 1975. (A small amount will be for sale at Anchor Public Taps for tasting room visitors.)

BevNet Live rates as biggest schmoozefest in emerging-bev space, with little interrupting the networking flow aside from the occasional invasion of wildfire smoke, as was the case in Santa Monica a few Decembers ago. Its summer edition is heading to NY next week as that city tries to emerge from suffocating smoke that's blown in from Canada, with speaker roster that includes likes of Nutrabolt chief revenue officer Kyle Thomas, Vita Coco cofounder Mike Kirban, Milo's Tea ceo Tricia Wallwork, Yesly ceo Scott Miller and energetic DeCicco athlete-bros behind Super Coffee.

Splash Beverage said its Tapout hydration and energy brand has enlisted UFC welterweight fighter Phil Rowe as an endorser. One focus of activation will be Rowe's home city of Orlando, Fla, as well as Tampa, both solid markets for Splash items . . . FoodFutureCo accelerator has accepted KombuchaTown of Bellingham, Wash, to its program, offering 1-on-1 coaching and weekly workshops in areas of leadership, business development, marketing, finance and sales. Also accepted were Vegan Sunday Supper (frozen vegan Italian food) and Vgang (digital warehouse and dropshipping platform for vegan products).

Colombian coffee producer The Green Coffee Co, a holding of Legacy Group, said it's closed $25 mil Series C equity funding round, eschewing institutional players in favor of continued recourse to what it describes as "individual accredited and high-net-worth individual investors primarily from the US." To date, 450+ of these individuals have poured $60 mil into co, it said. But it's turning to institutions next for $65 mil debt round to supplement the new equity and proceed with ambitious expansion plans that call for it to become world's largest producer of arabica coffee, accelerate US-based coffee roasting operations and to launch lines of liquors and spirits distilled from coffee cherries and other coffee byproducts. Founded in 2017, GCC by now claims total landholdings of over 9,000 acres and more than 11.5 mil coffee trees, more than double size of any other producer in Colombia. Down the road it's eyeing a US IPO in 2026. That's in keeping with stance that Daily Coffee News characterized this way: "As opposed to most US-based, vertically oriented companies with operations in traditional coffee-producing countries, Green Coffee Company's pitch pays little service to concepts such as value chain equity or sustainability. Instead, the company's US messaging remains geared towards investors."

Fire & Flower Holdings, whose partnership with Circle K operator Couche-Tard was seen as promising prong in the mainstreaming of cannabis, has filed for bankruptcy protection. Circle K had acquired 9.9% of Fire & Flower in 2019 for C$26 mil with an option to take over majority control for $380 mil and last fall moved to site dispensaries next to 10 of its Florida stores (BBI, Oct 20) tho state regulators subsequently threw up barriers to move and it's not clear whether any had opened yet. By now Couche-Tard had grown its stake to over 35% of Fire & Flower and it's agreed to give co $7.3 mil in debtor-in-possession financing, per announcement cited by C-Store Dive. Toronto Star styled bankruptcy move the "latest sign of trouble in Canada's legal cannabis industry, and a blow to convenience store giant Alimentation Couche-Tard's multimillion-dollar-move into the pot business." It cited court filings that Fire & Flower Holdings had just C$8.1 mil in cash on hand as of Mar 31, vs $50.8 mil in current liabilities, and is looking to sell its remaining assets. It said it's preparing layoffs and seeking to exit leases for several of its 80 stores, some of them operating under acquired Friendly Stranger banner. In US, soon after announcement of collocated Florida stores, state Health Dept told Washington Examiner that "Florida has never approved a Medical Marijuana Treatment Center to operate out of a gas station." Leafly.com had deemed the plan a "poetic turn for stoners nationwide, many of whom have scored illegally from some dude or dudette at their local gas station for years." But it doesn't seem to have happened. And now concept's prospects are even dimmer.

Quiet reshuffling at 7-Eleven has elevated longtime bev buyer and energy drink exec Jesus Delgado-Jenkins to evp and chief merchandising officer, C-Store Dive has ferreted out via LinkedIn updates. Among the shifts that apparently occurred in May, Dennis Phelps got boost to svp merchandising, Dave Strachan svp of fresh foods and Kristen Cook to vp/chief of staff. Co confirmed moves but declined to offer rationale to Dive, which noted that "these executive changes coincided with 7-Eleven naming Stan Reynolds, former chief financial officer, as company president, a role formerly held by CEO Joseph DePinto" and occur at a time that restive investor, ValueAct, is challenging 7-E parent 7 &ldings to review leadership and corporate governance. Among other changes, former chief merchandising officer Jack Stout now is evp of fresh foods, value chain and logistics, per 7-E's leadership web page, blog reported. Jesus had enjoyed 8-year run at 7-Eleven, including running its venture arm, before departing for supplier side; his LinkedIn page includes brief run at Zoa Energy but omits fractious run at Outlaw Energy, where court rejected his contention that founder Lance Collins had appropriated his ideas for use in subsequent Adrenaline Shoc energy entry.