Beer Marketer's Insights
Tilray is doubling down on a stadium strategy for its owned beer brands. Co's SweetWater Brewing will open 2 branded beer bars at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, home of the NFL's Atlanta Falcons and MLS' Atlanta United, Tilray announced Thurs. Addition of SweetWater outposts at its hometown stadium comes just 1 wk after co's Montauk Brewing announced 2 branded spaces at NY Mets' Citi Field and 1 month after Alpine Beer opened a taproom at San Diego's Petco Park.
Monster net sales from alc bev brands tripled to $46.3 mil in Q1 2023 vs $15.2 mil year ago, co reported late afternoon yesterday. Recall, sales from Q1 2022 only included CANarchy brands after closing the acquisition on Feb 17. So this yr's sales include an incremental 1.5 mos of CANarchy brands plus initial Beast Unleashed launch, which totaled $20.5 mil in Q1, co-ceo Rodney Sacks shared. Suggests CANarchy portfolio posted $25.8 mil in 3 mos of 2023 vs $15.2 mil in 1.5 mos, still getting dragged by its hard seltzers and craft brands other than Cigar City and Deep Ellum. Tho co "recently relaunched Wild Basin Hard Seltzer" with new packaging and flavors and refreshed Oskar Blues Dale's brand with plans to intro new Dale's American Light Lager, Rodney noted.
Craft sales picked up pace in latest 4 wks of tracked off-premise scans. While yr-to-date dollars dropped 2.7% with volume -7.2% in Circana multi-outlet + convenience scans thru Apr 23, sales were nearly flat for 4 wks (-0.4%) as vol improved to -4.3%. Off-prem picture still ain't pretty, with segment losing 2nd most $$ share YTD (-0.6) behind only hard seltzer (-1.6). But craft loss lessened to -0.36 share for 4 wks, as super premiums shed 0.35 share and domestic premiums dipped nearly 0.6.
Foodtech biz has made another move into mainstream accessibility: NotCo said its plant-based chocolate shake and custard have entered all US locations of Shake Shack chain. NotCo, recall, is Chilean-based co that harnesses AI engine called Giuseppe to combine plants in way that replicates flavor and texture of familiar animal items like dairy milk via NotMilk, NotChicken and NotBurger entries. "Having a tailored NotCo product in Shake Shack stores nationwide is a clear statement of our ability to create elevated tailored-made delicious and profitable versions of products in record time that appeal to the mass market," per cofounder/ceo Matias Muchnick.
BEV FORUM: Vegans Up in Arms over Wood Milk Ad? All Part of the Plan, Says MilkPEP's Dejewski
Dairy sector may be facing severe headwinds, but it's proving to be not without marketing resourcefulness. We've seen that lately with kefir player Lifeway Foods, whose strong social-media and events presence has reinvigorated sales (BBI, Jan 24). At Beverage Forum in Chicago earlier this week, MilkPEP marketing vp Al Dejewski offered evidence that he's been able to change the conversation around ingredient on a budget that, as he put it, is less than Pepsi spends on Super Bowl each year. How so? Most recently with spoof ad for fake brand called Wood Milk that's caused vehement reaction from vegans who say its reference to "artisanal" liquid created from wood chips trivializes very real issues of climate change and animal mistreatment. Of course, dairy industry has been waging intense war vs plantmilks, lately losing one battle when FDA allowed continued use of terms like almondmilk (BBI, Feb 22).
Monster maintained its momentum in new year, recording strong sales performance and continued strengthening of margins as inflationary factors eased and it continued to take selective pricing actions. Sales of Monster Beverage soared 7.9% to a record $1.7 bil, +15.3% excluding foreign exchange issues. Gross margin widened to 52.8% from 51.8% in Q4 and 51.3% in Q3, thanks to higher prices, lower freight costs and easing of aluminum can prices. Tho co didn't release volume data, so far "our pricing actions which have been implemented to partially mitigate inflationary pressures have not significantly impacted consumer demand," as Rodney reported. Cans will offer a continuing tailwind in remaining quarters this year as co continues to use up the higher-priced imported packs it stockpiled during squeeze. But continued cost pressures in areas like ingredients and copacking mean further pricing moves are still on the table, with its 18.6-oz, 19.2-oz and 24-oz lines getting a bump in US on Apr 1, tho they rep less than 10% of mix. Latin America and Asia Pacific markets also are taking new pricing, and "rolling price increases" will ripple thru EMEA region for balance of year. Operating income jumped 21.4% to $485.1 mil. As for current qtr, it started off briskly with April gain of 9.9% on currency-adjusted basis, excluding Alc Products segment, despite one less selling day.
Consumption is "gradually increasing, with a notable proportion drinking a specific non-alcoholic category more than last year," per CGA's Beverage Trak data thru end of Apr. Survey found "mocktails" are the most popular non-alc alternative on premise, with 8% of consumers drinking them. Asked about non-alc beer consumption on premise, 38% said they were drinking them more in Apr vs yr ago, while 12% were drinking them less. For non-alc spirits, 29% of consumers drank more vs yr ago while 16% drank less.
New Pacifico & Victoria Campaigns as Sales Keep Soarin'; Corona Non-Alcoholic Launch Since Mar
Both Pacifico and Victoria announced new marketing campaigns as their sales continue to rock n' roll up strong double-digits. Pacifico $$ grew 24% and Victoria's up 41% YTD thru Apr 23 in Circana multi-outlet + convenience data. Pacifico sales surpassed Blue Moon Belgian White, Bud Ice and Natty Ice, among others in these channels. And Victoria sales surpassed Bud Zero, Truly Tropical Variety Pk, Mike's Hard Lemonade original, Busch Ice and Kona Big Wave, among others.
Tho pricing levers are increasingly being pulled (particularly for AB), promos remain subdued among can-making giant Ball Corp's beer & bev customers. So with Memorial Day summer kickoff less than 4 wks away, who's likely to blink first? Ball ceo Dan Fisher seems to suspect it'll be brewers intent on growing volume, judging by remarks on Q1 earnings call yesterday, tho he's not willing to bet on it by upping his guidance on 2H sales. If theme sounds familiar, that's because it echoes remarks of Crown and Ardagh brass last month in explaining to investors why their volumes are tepid. (Unlike Crown, beer is a big part of Ball's biz.)