With wine sales softening, lotsa hand-wringing in that biz too these days about losing occasions, young drinkers and more. Rabobank's Steve Rannekleiv made some points in bank's recent quarterly wine report that will resonate with beer folk too. (Yesterday's Wine & Spirits Daily hipped us to this report.) Steve echoes US wine analyst Rob McMillan at SVB that vintners (like brewers) failed to cultivate millennial and younger drinkers, certainly not as well as distillers apparently have. As those drinkers' influence continues to grow going forward, next ten yrs "will become increasingly painful for wineries that fail to find ways to effectively connect" with them, Steve warns. How to connect? Brand strategies built around a "revised 4 Ps," he advises: "purpose, presence (on social media, natch), personality and packaging." (The traditional 4Ps, in case your mktg lingo is rusty: price, product, promotion and place.) Interestingly, report uses some examples from beer that have succeeded here. For example, BrewDog has built strong personality for its brands and adopted purpose-driven mktg tactics. Other brewers, including ABI, have made similar attempts, for sure, with varying degrees of success. Rabobank also singles out ABI-owned Babe Wine for leveraging social media presence, as well as checking off "strong personality" box.

Ongoing legal dispute between Bell's and VA distribs continues to "drag on" with process "likely" to last "well into 2020," reported RichmondBizSense. Latest update: on Feb 27 Bell's filed another appeal, this time to Richmond Circuit Court Judge Spencer's order to move dispute back to the Virginia Alc Bev Commission. Bell's now looking to take matter to Court of Appeals of Virginia "with a goal of potentially having it heard by the Supreme Court of Virginia," paper noted.

As situation surrounding coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to develop in US, NBWA "made the difficult decision to cancel our Legislative Conference," ceo Craig Purser announced in statement yesterday afternoon. Craig cited many of latest developments as key reasons for deciding to cancel. Everything from "exposure and self-quarantine of members of Congress," to "meeting cancellations, travel restrictions, flight reductions and guidance from the Center for Disease Control and other health agencies as well as a health advisory from the Washington, D.C. Health Department urging that non-essential gatherings like conferences be cancelled."

Well, it hasn't helped yet today, but veteran analyst James Edwardes Jones of RBC upgraded ABI stock to "outperform." Not because he thinks co is doing well. "2019's results were underwhelming and debt is stubbornly high." ABI's share price "has suffered from poor operational performance" and too much leverage. Performance "won't be easy to fix," sez James, as "organic sales growth has been a weakness of ABI's… as long as we've been following it." But James sees a path forward. First, "increasing investment in marketing rather than cutting it (as has been the case the last three years) would be a good place to start." Then too, "has AB InBev forgotten what it was brilliant at? Aggressive deleveraging after the Anheuser Busch acquisition facilitated exceptional share price performance." ABI would "benefit from a rerun of the playbook" after it bought AB in 2008. "Slashing the dividend and cutting capex by more than a half might be tough love in the short term, but it worked. We would like to see this repeated" tho "we see little sign of it happening right now." But even without those moves, he sees share as undervalued and "accelerated debt paydown would be a bonus."

Other than that bit o' good news from TTB, challenging times to say the least. Indeed, these are historic, nearly unprecedented times in financial mkts, already down more than 20% from peak and another 7-8% today. The declines are dramatic, truly horrific as the coronavirus pandemic spreads and uncertainty abounds. Gotta note too that corporate parents of top 2 US brewers are down even more than the mkt, disproportionately affected, to a shocking extent. Their continued rapid declines no doubt exacerbated by already existing weakness. But consider that value of ABI stock cut in half this yr alone. That includes another 16% drop today to $41 and change at presstime. So ABI stock has lost over $80 bil in mkt value so far this yr. Down to $78 bil. Stock peaked at $130 per share in 2016. ABI stock has lost over $150 bil in value, much more than $100+ bil purchase price of SABMiller. And it still has $100 bil in debt to boot. If you need another dose of bad news, see "Coronavirus Could Ignite A Debt Bomb" in NY Times, focusing on potential "fresh crisis" posed by ballooning corporate debt.

Yuengling has extended its partnership with the Philadelphia Phillies into a "multi-year" deal including new designation for Yuengling Amber Lager as the official lager of the Phillies this season, co announced. On top of increased presence thruout Citizens Bank Park including new Yuengling-branded "experiential bar area in right field," and integrated TV, radio and digital ads during home games, Yuengling will roll out new limited-edition Yuengling cans with retro Phillies logo for ballpark sales and 12pk sales "in select markets." Co also partnered with Phillies' all-star pitcher Aaron Nola as an ambassador of the brand, calling it "the first active MLB player to have a partnership with a beer brand." Deal will include everything from meet and greets with fans and local community efforts to social media contests and local Philly ads. Yuengling lookin' for all the extra lift it can

File this under low-hanging fruit. Mega-retailer Total Wine would like to add an inaugural Indiana location to the 206 outlets in 24 states it already operates. It cut a deal to buy a license/store in an "optimal location" in Indianapolis. But the state ABC rejected Total's request to transfer the license. Turns out IN law requires at least 60% of liquor store license owner's interest to be "bona fide residents of Indiana for 5 years." Total filed fed lawsuit to get law tossed. Does this sound familiar? Total, of course, won the US Sup Ct case last Jun which tossed a Tennessee requirement that liquor store owners be 2-yr residents. That's just one hurdle. Apparently, no other IN alc bev license holders are subject to this residency requirement. Walmart sells alc bevs in some of its off-premise stores in the state under an exception for drug and grocery stores, for example. Indiana caught in "legal quagmire" between Sup Ct decision and law still on the books, ABC vice-chairman said last week, reports The Indiana Lawyer. "But until the General Assembly or a court acts to invalidate our existing statute, we have no choice but to deny the permit."

AB down about 8% in its Region 3 in Feb, even with the intro of Bud Light Seltzer. Region 3 includes several large midwestern states. Down 1% for 2 mos, following a strong Jan. AB's FMB biz more than doubling in region, but Bud Light mega brand still down 6%.

After identifying "structural challenges" AB InBev faces in US yesterday, Consumer Edge's Brett Cooper turned to "structural headwinds" buffeting Molson Coors here this morn. If anything, they're stiffer. Why's that? MC "stuck in the middle," making progress in building share in eroding mainstream mkt, but "losing share of beer, losing share of value…and losing share of high end." Indeed, MC "portfolio has evolved to be more mainstream than it was 4 years ago, largely at the expense of the high-end mix," observes Brett. And that's as high end continues to roll up significant volume and $$ share gains. Given that Brett (and most everybody else) believes "meaningful pressure" on mainstream unlikely to abate anytime soon, "the pivot that Molson Coors needs to make is significant." Meanwhile, MC trying to cut costs, "moving teams while trying to rationalize value beer," continue progress in premium light and "pivot to winning in the high end," all at the same time.