Boston recently bought back 1.4 mil shares for $12 mil in 4th qtr and 4.1 mil shares for $33 mil in 1st qtr 2001. That amounts to over 1/4 of company. Stock price briefly hit 10 for 1st time in long time on 2/20, tho still way down from 96 IPO price. In 2 recent personnel moves, Boston promoted prexy/COO Martin Roper to CEO and operations veep Jeff White to COO. Founder Jim Koch is still Chairman and largest shareholder.

Boston Beer volume up nearly 6% in 2000, in-cluding BoDean?s intro and tiny contract production volume. EBITDA jumped $650,000, 3% to $23.5 mil and its earnings per share up 15% in 2000 too. While Boston Lager and Sam Adams Seasonals depletions up 4.1% in 2000, shipments up about 30,000 bbls, 2.5% more than that as Boston built inventory. Boston also discontin-ued some minor brands. Boston expects 9% total shipments drop in 1st qtr going against BoDean?s rollout numbers, and also a 1% Boston Lager shipments drop.

When NBWA asked 1,000 men whether they'd most like beer, chocolate, aftershave, or flowers for Valentine's Day, probably figured they had an easy winner. Turns out tho, 33-44-yr-olds prefer chocolate by a 7% margin, and even 21-34 ?yr old male group pre-ferred beer by only 2%. Then, embarrassing results showed up on front page of WSJ "Marketplace" section and elsewhere Maybe gettin' ink ain't always so great.

Big features in NY Times (today) and Ad Age Global lauded AB, its ad agencies and August IV for huge success of Whassup ads. Times gave AB kudos for ?taking hottest series of commercials into a new year.? Noted that ?is a considerable feat? in biz when sequels ?rarely as entertaining and popular as the original.? DDB?s chief creative exec told Times that ads have ?talk value? which with ?enough media exposure begins to seep into the culture.? Buzz around ads led to lots of talk on radio, late-night TV and internet. Bob Lachky, vp brand mgmt told Times while other advertisers would have said ?cease and desist? to many parodies on internet, AB let them go. ?The internet played a huge part of its success?and you can never really plan that. That?s good luck.? DDB estimated buzz around ads generated $20 mil so far in free publicity for AB. Unmentioned in any of these laudatory articles: total Bud trend unchanged in last 3 yrs at ?2.5%. Would Bud have dropped more without Whassup? Would Bud Light have grown less?

Pete Coors bought 178,549 shares of Coors class B stock on Dec 22 at option prices $16.44-$20.63 per. Total cost: approx $3.3mil. To cover costs, he surrendered 105,499 shares worth $7.9 mil. Pete?s paper gain that day (stock closed at $75.94) was $10.2 mil. At presstime, Coors stock at $69.

That?s right. IRI sez supermkt consumers spent more on Corona Extra 12-packs of longneck bottles than for any other single package last yr. Dollar sales of Corona 12-packs up 23.9%, had 2.9 share of all beer $$ sales in supers. Avg price: $11.62, up 33 cents , 2.9%. Bud Light suitcases, 12-pack cans and Bud 12-pack cans each had 2.7 share. $$ sales of both Bud Light packages up, $$ sales of biggest Bud package down; but sales of Bud suitcases (#5 package) up. Lookin? at volume, Corona 12-pk was #7 at 1.9 share. Bud Light/Bud had top 4 packages in volume.

Two neighboring small-to-medium AB distribs in NC merged in Jan. This situa-tion especially unusual because no formal valuation involved; the 2 owners came up with a simple formula and agreed. For now they will keep 2 warehouses (only 20 miles apart), but plan to close both and build a new facil-ity in 2 yrs. No headcount reduction, either. The companies: Silver Eagle in Salisbury (about 1.5 mil cases) and Tri-Distributors in Lexington (about 1 mil cases). The principals: Silver Eagle?s owner John Lipscomb was a former ABICC distrib until 1997. Tri-Dist owned by Ron Wiese, who used to be August III?s assistant and subsequently AB distrib in DC; Tri-Dist formerly owned by AB veep Orion Burkhardt?s family. Lipscomb-Wiese discussions inspired by questionnaire at end of AB?s Consolidation Guide. Answering questions led them to begin to talk about sharing services. In merged co, John is equity mgr and Ron is successor-mgr.

Beer volume up 4% in supers for 4 weeks thru Jan 28, according to IRI, even while avg price paid up 3%. Growth had slowed to virtual standstill in 4th qtr 2000 in supers. But AB and Coors each back on track with 6% and 7% gains respectively in early 2001. Miller started slow; down 1.5% and lost 1.3 share for 4 weeks, while Pabst down 15% and lost 1.2 share.

Sure is lotsa media play about these vita-min- and caffeine-laced soft drinks as AB, Coke and others intro brands. Two recent articles noted many drink-ers are mixing red hot Red Bull and other energy drinks with vodka, other liquors. A hi-margin oppty for beer distribs? An opening for spirits to cut into beer sales? Or just another fad drink? Stay tuned.

To defend states? rights. Va legislature considering open container ban in vehicles to get more fed highway funds. Wash Post quoted two die-hards agin? it: ?Do we want to be the spoilsport state where you can?t pop a beer in the back seat of your car?? asked one. At least one legislator on board too: ?I do not believe that for a few shillings we should sell off the state?s sovereignty.? Shillings?