That means 7th Circuit Ct of Appeals decision

Each movin’ on for different reasons. Don’t know what it means, if anything. But a handful of Coors sr execs announced their departure recently. Latest: Tex McCarthy, vp sales for West, who will become sr veep sales of Allied Domecq. Before that, Coors sr veep general counsel Caroline Turner and sr veep operations Don Brown announced their departure. Until this flurry, Coors had mostly kept senior mgt team intact over last bunch of yrs.

Brown Dist of Richmond (owned by Larry Brown, who also has AB distrib in West Palm Beach, Fla) just bought 900,000-case Lee Dist Co of Petersburg (owned by Mark Sisisky). Com-bined, Brown

After jumping outta the gate with a 30% gain in Jan, import shipments back to earth in Feb: off 2,000 bbls, 0.2%. Still up 12-13% YTD, 6 mos and 12 mos. Shipments from Canada and UK kept rockin

Here

Dept of Labor harassed Fla AB distrib John Saputo and distribs in other states over commission/incentive pay practices and im-pact-selling it deemed "illegal

The consumer price index for beer hit a high water mark in Mar, up 2% from a year earlier, according to govt stats. But beer prices still not up as much as general inflation since the CPI was up 2.9%. Spirits pricing was aggressive; had 3.3% boost. Wine prices up just 0.3% in Mar, and index in Mar lower than it was in late 2000.

Tho Boston Beer upped earnings per share at double-digit rate, it certainly wasn’t by growing top-line. (Boston bought back lotsa shares.) Its shipments dropped 20,000 bbls, 7% in 1st qtr. Total depletions were down 4.4%, tho Sam Adams Lager and seasonals were flat. Apr-May orders suggest more trouble ahead as Boston expects 17% shipments drop for those 2 mos. Bos-ton took price increase that will avg 3% nationwide. This “may have resulted in short-term volume losses,” said Chairman Jim Koch. Oper income at $5.3 mil, down 4%.

Miller’s “underlying domestic shipment volume” dropped 5.3% to 9.4 mil bbls (down about 500,00 bbls in 1st qtr), according to PM. All Miller’s top brands were down (including Miller Lite, MGD and Foster’s), “partially reflecting Miller’s decision to reduce distributor invento-ries.” Reported number doesn’t include Molson brands either yr. So Miller’s US biz about 700,000 bbls lower in 1st qtr 2001 than 2000 when it had Molson. Oper income down $29 mil, 19% “due to lower volume as well as double-digit increases in marketing spending” on core brands, wrote PM. Miller oper income down $56 mil, 23% in last 6 mos. In 1st qtr, Miller under 3% of PM total oper income, which was up 11% to $4.3 bil.

Since huge Dec drop (-9%), US taxpaid shipments stayed in dol-drums, neither up nor down much. In fact, including 300,000-bbl, 2% drop in Mar, taxpaid shipments down 250,000 bbls, 0.6% in 1st qtr, estimates Matt Hein at Beer Inst. Means domestic taxpaids down 1.45 mil bbls, 1.7 % for 6 mos. That