Incoming NBWA chairman Chris Caffey sent hard-hitting 5-page letter to MADD prexy stating “concern” that recent MADD actions show “pattern of anti-beer initiatives” while favoring “foreign-owned liquor interests.”  (In typical NBWA no-holds-barred style, letter uses phrase “foreign liquor lobby,” or variation of it, 3 times in a single sentence!)  Specifically: 1) MADD has strongly, publicly opposed rollback of fed excise tax on beer, but hasn’t said boo about similar efforts to roll back liquor taxes; 2) MADD supports tax equivalence, raising beer and wine taxes to liquor levels; 3) MADD has met, worked with and praised liquor folks while whacking beer biz.  More in Sep Alcohol Issues INSIGHTS.

Includes 3.2% gain last 13 weeks thru Dec 30, according to IRI. That’s much better than overall mkt trends in 2001, so supers (about 1/5 of beer sales) obviously taking biz from other channels. For full yr, AB volume up 1.8%, Miller down 1.6% and Coors up 0.9% in supers. Tho their trends improved in 4th qtr, each of top 3 brewers lost share of volume for 13 weeks. AB and Coors each lost 0.1 share, Miller down 0.8 share, with its volume virtually even. AB share unchanged for full yr at 44.1. Biggest gainer: you guessed it, Guinness Bass Import Co. Up 135% and gained 1 full share of volume in supers to 1.7 for 13 weeks on strength of Smirnoff Ice. For full yr, GBIC gained 0.9 share of volume, but impressively grabbed ad-ditional 1.4 share of $$$. While top 3 brewers had 79 share of volume, dropped to 72 share of $$, down 1.6 for yr. Imports at 16.7 share of $$, up 0.3, micros unchanged at 4.5 share of $$ and IRI's "specialty" (which in-cludes malternatives) grabbed 5.4 share of $$, up 1.6 for yr. Those 3 segments, in which top 3 have so little presence, climbed to 26.6 share of $$ in supers in 2001.

Ain’t exactly man bites dog when two courts contradict each other, but gotta note latest developments on potential liability of gun-makers, targeted by same public health folks who may come after alc bevs in future. US Ct of Appeals for 3d Circuit just ruled, for 2d time in 2 mos, that a city cannot sue gun-makers for allegedly creating a “public nuisance” by negligently distributing guns. But on Dec 31, state appeals ct in Illinois ruled the exact opposite. It allowed similar (tho private) lawsuit to go forward. Same Ill court is reviewing yet another similar suit based on “public nuisance” theory brought by Chicago.

Miller tried to move a NY lawsuit against it on acquired brands into Fed court, but Fed magistrate recommended Miller pay atty fees associated with its attempt and that case should stay in state court.   Miller and distrib agreed to "stipulation" of $34,000 in attys' fees.  In this suit, Olde English distrib Garal had included Boening Bros in complaint since Boening was supposed to get brands.   (Ironic because Miller had earlier sought to terminate Boening Bros for all Miller products, but ultimately settled.)  Miller had argued that Boening was “fraudulently joined,” and doesn’t belong in suit. It even belatedly argued it has “become much less likely that Boening” will “be the distributor replacing Garal.”  But in unusually harsh language, magistrate wrote: “This court may not be so facilely manipulated.”  Said argument “adds nothing to Miller’s position” and Miller “failed to make any adequate showing” in its affidavit.   Whoops. 

California is a hotbed of consolidation last 6 mos. Another big Miller/Coors distrib just created when Best Way (owned by Kevin Williams) bought about 2 mil cases from Sierra (owned by Frank Clark). That put Best Way at about 9 mil cases. Interestingly, Labatt USA products went to Haralambos Bevs (owned by Tony Haralambos) again. Haralambos used to sell LUSA products (prin-cipally Tecate) in most of LA metropolitan area. A couple yrs back, Labatt moved from Haralambos to tradi-tional 3-tier network; but this is 2d recent deal in which Haralambos Bev reacquired Labatt brands.

Taxpaid shipments up 570,000 bbls, 4.7% in Dec, estimates Beer Inst’s Matt Hein. Not bad, but gotta remember Dec 2000 was down 1.1 mil bbls, 8.5%, so Dec 2001 still well below Dec 99, and not even ahead of Dec 98. Mediocre qtr trend too: 4th qtr taxpaids up 221,000, 0.6% vs 2000, but nearly 900,000 bbls, 2% lower than 99. For full yr, taxpaids down 400,000 bbls, 0.2%, exact same trend as in 2000. Depending on imports Nov-Dec, looks like US malt bev biz up 0.5-0.6% in 2001. Follows 0.9% gain in 2000, 1.9% in 99.

Or is that a flood? Miller and #2 spirits co Allied Domecq just announced “partnership” that will intro Stoli and Sauza-branded malternatives by May. Pledged to spend another $50 mil in “development, launch activity and marketing.” Plus more brands to follow. So malternative segment gettin’ mighty crowded with Smirnoff Ice, Bacardi Silver, Mike’s, SKYY Blue (Miller’s other malternative), and other Diageo brands coming. These cos could easily spend a couple hundred mil on 2002 media in this segment which got less than 3 share of total malt bev biz in US in 2001. Whew! Competition for “share of malternative mind” gonna be brutal in a lot of distribs' houses. In UK, Allied Domecq stock went down today as it also said that its US spirits sales affected by economic downturn and at least 1 investment house complained that Allied "losing market share in the US.”

In article on Calif consolidation, turns out it was sister co of Haralambos Bevs called Alta Mktg which used to sell Labatt USA brands to chains throughout Calif. Sometime back, Alta sold that volume as LUSA switched to more traditional distribution system. Haralambos Bevs (owned by Haralambos family) kept LUSA biz in its territory and now is expanding area that it sells LUSA, but not selling statewide to chains.

Coming in 2005: Rolling Rock Light? Gotta read Labatt USA announcement of Rock Light re-launch: “Rock Light was introduced regionally as Rolling Rock Light in 1989 and distribution was expanded nationally in 1992. It was re-launched in 1994 as Rock Light, but returned to its original name in 1997 as part of a broad re-positioning of the base Rolling Rock brand.” Now Rock Light rolls again in 2002. Hope they save labels.

Past ain’t prologue, but gotta note: back in late 80's wine coolers grabbed nearly 25 share of total wine biz. Got $141 mil in measured media in '86, a staggering amount for wine biz back then. In 87, media spending jumped another 30% (remember many thought Bartles & Jaymes ads were among best tv spots ever, and Seagram spent lotsa $$$ on ads with a guy named Bruce Willis). But sales started droppin' in '88. Down 30% by 1990, then product became mostly malt-based. (Data from newsletter The Wine Investor.)