Chairman of Matt brewing, F.X. was behind co's transformation in late-80's / early 90's as it shifted focus away from struggling popular-priced beers and moved towards superpremium and contract production.  He also served as chairman of BAA (small brewers assn) twice.  F.X. was a mentor to craft brewers and a friend to many in the industry.  He will be missed.

New ergonomics regulations (which Denver Mgmt estimated would cost beer distribs at least 30 cents per case) were bolstered by just-released study commissioned by Congress.  Study found “clear relationship” between work-related activities, such as heavy lifting or repetitive movements, and injuries such as back pain and carpal-tunnel syndrome.  One Democrat told Wall St Jnl that results “could make it harder for Republicans to justify overturning the rule.”  Rep Cass Ballenger, a Republican on House committee which has jurisdiction over OSHA, acknowledged report “probably makes our argument harder.”  Ballenger told WSJ: “If the panel that came up with this study had included some business people or real workers, instead of a bunch of left-leaning eggheads, they might have paid attention to the costs of putting this in place.”

Consumer Price Index annual avg for beer increased 3.2% in 2000 to 156.8.  That follows 2.3% bump in 99.  Beer prices still below rate of inflation tho as overall CPI up 3.4% to 172.2.  Wine prices went up about less than half rate of beer with 1.5% increase to 151.6.  Spirits pricing remained aggressive in 2000, up 3.9% to 162.3.

So far so good for Sapporo USA, not yet a yr after acquiring Stone Brewing, co reported this wk. Combined, cos off-premise volume grew 5% yr-to-date thru May 27 in NielsenIQ scans, co shared. Total beer down 3% same period. Sapporo volume up 3%, even with import gain in this all outlet + convenience data. And Stone cases jumped 6% in a craft segment that's down 4% by volume. (A version of this article appeared in Craft Brew News.)

Several big growth brands kicked into even higher gear in Circana multi-outlet + convenience scans for latest wk ended May 28, Sunday of Memorial Day Weekend. Build up to MDW boosted total beer $$ to +4%, but Twisted Tea and Yuengling both grew over 40% vs yr ago and up ~6 pts vs prior wk. Twisted brand family (+47%) sold over $29 mil for 1-wk, ahead of Natty family. Yuengling (+42%) at over $12 mil vs approx $10 mil each of prior 3 periods. About same size as New Belgium brand fam for latest wk: $$ +37% with volume even higher (+38%).

As Molson Coors and Pabst prepare for big transition of Pabst volume into City Brewing facilities by end of 2024, cos devised a methodical plan to start ramping up volume at City facilities starting this summer, document details. In calendar 2023, City expects to brew nearly 460K bbls of Pabst products with over 70% brewed Sep-Dec 2023 primarily from Latrobe and Irwindale facilities. Indeed, thru first 5 mos of 2023, City produced just 46K bbls solely out of Latrobe. From here, co plans to increase volume and add production in Memphis starting this Aug, Irwindale in Sep and La Crosse in Nov 2023. Several key brands are expected to move production to City by end of 2023, including PBR, Rainier, Old Style and Colt.

In just 13 yrs, Wal-Mart built its supercenters from scratch into #1 US retail grocer at $57.4 bil, according to Supermkt News. Had 11% of US supermkt biz in just 862 stores. Kroger at #2, with 2000 revs of approx $49 bil in 2359 stores. Albertson's at #3 with $36 bil revs and 7 share. Safeway at #4, $33 bil. And Ahold USA rounded out top 5 at $27 bil. Top 5 had 38.5 share of grocery store biz, sez Supermkt News, tho it also noted more blending of channels and difficult-to-separate data. For instance, Wal-Mart grocery sales at $17 bil; supercenters are also discount stores and that's over 2/3 of their biz.

European Commission just put out report that said thousands of lives could be saved if all 15 countries in European Union had .05 BAC (blood alcohol content) as the legal limit. Currrently, 10 of 15 countries have 0.5, but in Britain, Ireland, Italy and Luxembourg, it's .08. In Sweden, it's .02.