Beer Marketer's Insights
There's been an outpouring of support from the beer community for western NC and other impacted areas in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene's immense damage done to that region. Some breweries have regained power and found creative solutions to keep production running thru help of other cos. Yet many breweries remain closed and are accepting donations thru GoFundMe pages, Porch Drinking article highlighted. Orgs like Beloved Asheville, United Way, World Central Kitchen and American Red Cross are gathering funds to support the area. And North Carolina Craft Brewers Guild organized the Pouring for Neighbors initiative to allow brewers and industry members around the country to raise funds for WNC hurricane relief, with over 100 brewers already enrolled to donate a portion of a designated beer's sales to the state disaster relief fund at presstime.
Two sizable NY craft brewers, Bronx Brewery and Captain Lawrence, merged to better navigate industry challenges, reported Bronx Times after Brewbound first reported the news. Both brands struggled in recent years amid influx of competition in the NYC metro area, with Captain Lawrence and Bronx each seeing volume sales for their own brands essentially cut in half since their respective peaks of 27,500 bbls in 2018 and ~14K bbls in 2017. Yet Captain Lawrence successfully built up its contract brewing capabilities and taproom space to help mitigate declines, brewing a total of 25K bbls/yr prior to merger with Bronx. Bronx Brewery opened two new NYC locations in East Village and Hudson Yards. Deal came about as Captain Lawrence began producing some Bronx brews earlier this year, and virtually all Bronx production will move to its Elmsford, NY facility post-merger.
Stone to Focus on Core, Add Nationwide Pils in 2025; Discontinue Specialty Releases Nationally
With craft in a tough spot, Stone will look to find its way forward with focus. The legacy craft brand plans to "proactively replace lower volume beers" by discontinuing specialty releases, its Enjoy By series and large format bottles nationally, Sapporo-Stone CEO Zach Keeling explained to distribs in separate virtual ABP yesterday. Specialty offerings will still be available at Stone's own locations as well as direct-to-consumer with shipping to CA, VA, DC and OH. But co plans to double down on core offerings, including new Stone Delicious Hazy IPA 12pks, brand refresh on Buenaveza and national push on new Stone Pils.
After buying Stone in 2022 and setting up US production of Sapporo this year, the combined co is leaning in on Sapporo as its primary growth engine going forward. "We want to double the size of Sapporo," declared Sapporo-Stone CEO Zach Keeling to kick off the brand's virtual ABP with distribs yesterday. Recall, Sapporo (339K bbls) finished last yr ahead of Stone (316K bbls), as Sapporo's now seeking to add another ~5 mil cases, bringing it to ~10 mil total. That ain't a goal for next yr, and no specific timeline attached to that aspiration. But the distribution opportunity is "glaring," commented Chief Revenue Officer Tom McReavy. "This is just the beginning," added Zach, seeing "tremendous opportunity ahead."
Bev people playing in categories like energy, soda and hydration, it's time to gird thyselves for the unmanageable c-store extravaganza called NACS. Showcase for all things c-store-related runs Tues to Thurs at Las Vegas Convention Center. Info here. We plan to be there with our usual mixture of dread and anticipation.
Mud WTR powdered mushroom brand has gone chainwide within Sprouts as it continues its assault on bricks & mortar after long being ecomm-only brand. It's got 2 facings in incubation array alongside likes of The Only Bar, Kachava and Parch . . . BLK fulvic waters have entered select Walgreens stores in Southern Calif, its home base.
If "bi" means two, then maybe the beloved San Francisco specialty grocer should consider changing its name to Tri-Rite Market, because there are 3 of them now. Long-anticipated third unit of venerable Bi-Rite Market finally made its debut on Polk St in city's Russian Hill nabe on Aug 29, with expected highly curated selection with heavy tilt toward locally connected wines, bevs, produce and cheese but heavier tilt to prepared foods than in other two stores. Old-line brands like Coca-Cola didn't get much respect - the only version we spotted was the glass-bottle cane sugar variety - but at bleeding edge there was 8-shelf endcap of alcohol alternatives like Ghia, Amaro Falso and NA beers like local Best Day and national Athletic, pictured below. (Bottom shelf more conventionally went to 4-pks of Q mixer brand.) At 4,000 sq ft, it's the biggest store of the 3, tho Eater noted that the aisles aren't being maxed out so that the retailer has flexibility to respond to local shoppers' requests for additional items to merchandise.
The other shoe has dropped in wake of announced retirement of Lemon Perfect prexy Jim Brennan earlier this week: industry vet Jeff Popkin, with stops on both alc and non-alc sides, has been recruited as CEO, succeeding founder Yanni Hufnagel, who segues to exec chmn role. Popkin's NA stops had included Red Bull and Vita Coco, but he's mainly served with alc brands at Molson Coors, Keg One, Jagermeister and most recently Compass Box whiskies. He also sits on board of Fevertree mixer player. Yanni, of course, is former college hoops coach and scout who developed Lemon Perfect as better but approachable way to hydrate his athletes.
It was barely two years ago that the Pickett family - which had earlier created and exited Muscle Milk protein brand - sought to ride what was then still anticipated to be a CBD wave with an athlete-oriented infused energy line called Gym Weed (BBI, Jun 27 2022). The name hasn't changed but the CBD entries were quietly depleted early this year and Gym Weed will be heading to next week's NACS c-store expo as an exhibitor for the first time riding a wave of DSD expansion and college activation as an ashwagandha-powered energizer. It will be on show in the new-products area - not a misnomer, prexy Shane McCassy, a former Muscle Milk exec, pointed out, for a brand whose non-infused line only hit the market about 15 mos ago. As noted, instead of CBD as hero ingredient, it sports 300 mg of ashwagandha, which is believed to alleviate stress and improve cognition. It uses Ixoreal's KSM66 version, pitched as most bioavailable commercial option.