Interbrew/Stella Artois got lotsa play in WSJ today (front-page & longer in European edition).  Main theme: Interbrew using mktg/price/”snob appeal” to turn mainstream brand at home into “pricey import” abroad. And seems to be working, at least in NYC where Wall St Jnl sez NY distrib Manhattan boosted Stella sales 95% in 2001, expects 65% pop this yr.  Interbrew chief Hugo Powell described underground mktg of Stella in NY -- creating a “buzz” about brand among bar owners, limiting distribution, jacking price -- as “viral marketing.” Even quotes Manhattan CEO Simon Bergson who sez strategy “was more mystique than reality, and it worked.”  But WSJ took plenty of shots too. Quoted Belgian beer drinkers who said: “Americans must be insane” to pay premium for Stella, a New Yorker who sez he’s “somewhat embarrassed” to drink it since he found out Stella is Bud of Belgium.  But another drinker quoted, calls Stella “the new cool beer in town.”

Craft beer shipments eked out 1.2% volume gain to 6.2 mil bbls last yr, Inst of Brewing Studies director Paul Gatza told members this morning. Craft beers were 22 share of hi-priced biz (imports + specialty), said Paul. He didn?t say, but craft beer had over 30 share of hi-end 5 yrs ago. Another sign of level-ing: 76 craft brew openings in 2001, including brewpubs, vs 74 closings.

Liquor cos still lookin' to increase presence on TV and preachin' equivalence too.  Got support from some local TV execs at this week's broadcasters (NAB) convention. “We don’t treat them differently from any other legal product,” rep from broadcasting co that runs liquor ads in 20 outlets told Reuters.   Diageo will continue to run local and cable ads in 200 mkts; added access in 300 more,  Diageo North America prexy Paul Clinton told USA Today.  Also called NBC decision to pull ads a "temporary setback."   Meanwhile, DISCUS still pounding equivalence message: “Alcohol is alcohol and, once people understand that, they understand that beer, wine and spirits should be treated equally and held to the same standard…anything less is hypocrisy,” declared DISCUS prexy Peter Cressy at press conference for reporters in broadcast and ad biz.    

Smirnoff Ice up 216% and got 44 share of malternatives thru Mar 24 in supers, sez IRI  (doesn’t include coolers).  Mike’s at 15 share of segment and up 36% yr-to-date.  Bacardi Silver at 7 share and #4 brand with just a few weeks of data.  (No SKYY Blue data yet.).  So segment up about 50%, but 3 brands were 2/3 of segment.  Other older brands getting creamed: Zima (#3) down 23%, Tequiza down 25%, Doc’s down 31%, Zima Citrus down 31%, Hooper’s Hooch Hard Orange down 39% and Rick’s Spiked down 55%.  All those brands in top 10, but Rick’s and Hooch also have growing line extensions.

Barton Beers’ revs up $45 mil, 37% to $165 mil in fiscal 4^th qtr ended Feb 28, according to parent co Constellation.  Said outsized gain “primarily driven by” buy-in from distribs before Mar 1 price increase.  But that’s still  eye-catchin’ number.  For full yr, Barton Beers up $99 mil, 15% to $759 mil.

Miller/SAB that is. Deal should be announced next week, Reuters wrote yesterday, citing industry and banking sources.  “It’s Miller Time in Johannesburg,” headlined current Biz Week.  Quoted “one Miller exec high on the deal: ‘We can get out from under the wing of Philip Morris, where we’re really an afterthought.'”  Many distribs think like this too.  But “reviving long-ailing Miller while taking aim at giant” AB “is a challenge of a different magnitude” than previous SAB expansions in emerging mkts, wrote Biz Week.  Meanwhile,  SAB sticking by its original statement that it’s in “preliminary” talks.  Stay tuned. 

NBWA prexy David Rehr neatly summed up brewer/distrib state exec panel at NBWA/Brewers legislative conference on how to fight excise tax hikes: 1) use those sign machines to create anti-tax signs and post ‘em in retail accounts (this worked in Kansas recently); 2) “make it hurt” (by exposing pols to pressure from key constituents); 3) build coalitions, sometimes with “unusual” or unexpected partners (i.e., MADD was partner against tax hike in Oreg because it wasn’t targeted for programs MADD supported); 4) begin battles early, laying groundwork, building relations with key legislators and anti-tax coalition partners; 5) look for local people “with a story to tell,” (could be retailers, could be small brewers with lots at stake, etc.)  A common thread, from AB sr govt affairs officer Rich Keating: “bring the issue home” by using beer biz’s grassroots strength, “which sets us apart from others, especially the liquor industry.”  Another point from Rich: “never give in” to belief that “it’s inevitable.”  

 

As Boston Beer rolls out Sam Adams Light, it will be spending heavily on mktg, (the ?bulk? of it on Light, sez ceo Jim Koch ), radically changing its biz model. So far, Boston Beer selling more beer but makin? less $$ in 2002. In 1st qtr, Boston Beer shipments up 14,000 bbls, 5.4%, but oper income down $3.4 mil, 64% as ad, selling and promo expenses up $6.5 mil, 42%. Shipments and orders so far suggest about a 20% jump in Apr-May, Boston said. Sam Adams Light only in New Eng and some test mkts, but resulted in avg of 30% incremental growth in those mkts, according to prexy Martin Roper. Boston Beer expects to be up 10-20% for full yr 2002; it said.

Miller shipments up 150,000 bbls, 1.6% to 9.5 mil bbls, PM reported. Core brands also up 1.6% with Lite, High Life and Foster?s all up; only Gen Draft down. SKYY Blue ?essentially offset the declines in Miller?s lower-priced non-core brands,? PM said. Miller oper income up $6 mil, 5% to $130 mil, but when you factor a charge of $23 mil in what PM calls ?separation programs and asset impair-ment? (whatever that is, PM had no comment), beer ?net? down $17 mil, 14% to $107 mil. Revs up $105 mil, 9.4%, a surprisingly strong increase, probably bumped up by SKYY Blue.

Domestic taxpaid shipments up 115,000 bbls, 0.8% in Mar, estimated Matt Hein at Beer Inst. That was 4th up mo in row. Means domestic taxpaid shipments up almost 700,000 bbls, 1.6% in 1st qtr. Much of that gain is malternative pipeline-filling (SKYY Blue had orders of 200,000 bbls for Feb-Mar). Still, a good start. For 12 mos, domestic brewers up 100,000 bbls, 0.1%.