Beer Marketer's Insights
Protein was the star in an otherwise sluggish North American biz as Danone worked on rebuilding availability and relevance of its International Delight creamers after product recall in Mar while setting restage for Silk plantmilk brand.
Fiddlehead Brewing's transformational growth since Covid is one-of-a-kind in craftland and still goin' strong in 2025. Volume is on pace to grow around 13%, 14K bbls to 122K bbls vs yr ago, founder Matt Cohen shared with INSIGHTS. That's approaching 100K bbls gained since 2019 when it sold just 26K bbls all on draft. Among craft brewers, only New Belgium and Athletic added more bbls in that time. And Fiddlehead only sold in 10 full states plus part of MD, providing max 15 days of inventory on hand to distribs and mandating cold storage thruout the supply chain process. While shift to package sales during Covid sparked much of this growth run, draft still makes up 40% of Fiddlehead's mix, still growin' 3% vs yr ago, and co's always leading with draft-only in new mkts. Matt likes to think about mkts based on number of tap handles, sporting 1,400+ in MA, over 600 in DeCrescente's territory of NY alone and 555 in home state VT.
Angry Orchard's momentum keeps building, bolstered by the brand's recent ties to the Jason Universe of slasher films headed into Halloween. Among top 50 brand families across beer and beyond beer, AO "is now the fastest-growing" among those that declined in 2024, a Boston Beer rep shared with INSIGHTS. Total Angry Orchard fam now up +12.2% in latest 13-wk Circana multi-outlet + convenience scans thru 10/19. Its 12-pt trend improvement since Q1 is one of the best turnarounds of any brand in that group, spokesperson added.
George Clooney's not done with the bev industry yet. The Casamigos co-founder, fresh off a six-month run on Broadway during which he "barely had a sip" of alcohol, is gettin' into the NA beer biz with Randy Gerber and Mike Meldman, his Casamigos partners, reports the NY Post. "Between bike trips and late-night laughs, they have been quietly crafting something new: a non-alcoholic beer made for real friends, by real friends and the freedom to wake up ready for whatever comes next," says "verbiage" obtained by the Post. Recall, the trio sold Casamigos to Diageo in 2017 for $1 bil.
Yuengling is makin' waves on premise in IL as it entered the state thru MC JV earlier this yr. Yuengling's the 7th largest beer brand by $$ in on premise IL Fintech data. Not far behind Bud Light and Busch Light, slightly ahead of Blue Moon, and well ahead of Guinness and Stella. Notably, Yuengling is still 7th-largest brand on prem in OH. Yet sales have slipped considerably since its launch there over a decade ago. Suggests Yuengling could slip further down the IL list in yrs to come. But in year one, IL's launch and more recent MI launch are clearly providing a pop for Yuengling in Fintech on-prem data nationally too. Yuengling gained nearly 0.2 share to 2.6 of STR $$.
"Bigger Pool of Buyers" In "Exceptionally Difficult Year" Is "Good" for Distribs, Sez Tim Owston
2025 is "an exceptionally difficult year for beer distributors," began TMO Group Principal Tim Owston in note to distribs today. (Tim spent 33 yrs at Coors, Molson Coors and MillerCoors, mostly on distrib deals.) Tuff trends "have driven the addition of non-beer beverages to the portfolio of most distributors." When at NBWA, distribs reminded Tim that "number of new suppliers seeking access" to their biz "can be both distracting and overwhelming." What's more, adding non-beer suppliers "does not accrue future benefits at the same rate as new beer brands" as they often don't have the same franchise protections. "Bottomline, non-beer portfolio additions offset current losses, but build less long-term business value."
What a Year in AB Distribution System! INSIGHTS Tracked 13 Deals Already; Lots More Coming
Fedway's deal to buy Ritchie & Page marked the thirteenth deal that INSIGHTS tracked in AB system so far this year, with 10 or more still in the works. Unknown how many more will be announced, let alone close, before year end. But if you include early next year, the 30 distrib deals predicted by Paragon's Randy Jozwiakowski at our Spring Conference looks increasingly likely (including other networks). And some are of more overarching significance.
Is this most unified push to close the hemp loophole to date? On behalf of "a bipartisan coalition of 39 state and territory attorneys general," National Assn of Attorneys Generals sent a formal letter to congressional leaders on Fri urging them to clarify federal hemp definition to prevent exploitation from bad actors. And if it wasn't already, it's now crystal clear on which side of the fence they stand. "We ask Congress to act decisively to clarify the Farm Bill's definition of hemp to ensure intoxicating THC products are taken off the market," they wrote. Signers included AG from Minn, which has been ground zero for D9s, but excluded AGs from Texas, Fla and NJ that have also seen sizable activity.
Viewed in its early days as one among many CBD players, Recess founder Ben Witte has always contended that he intended co to be a multiplatform player, making good on premise as CBD sector remained stuck in regulatory neutral and he added well-performing Mood and then Mocktail lines. Now it's recruited seasoned multiplatform hand in Nutrabolt's global chief commercial officer Kyle Thomas to steer expanding brand forward, backed by $30 mil in new money led by CaVu Consumer Partners, not long off its successful exit of Poppi brand to PepsiCo. Among priorities that founder Ben Witte outlined to us today: building out comprehensive network of beer wholesalers, with powerful Reyes house among recent months' additions, alongside DSD partners like Hensley, Heidelberg and Silver Eagle. Thomas, who earlier honchoed cutting-edge brands at Coca-Cola, takes role as prexy and co-CEO to Witte. Also participating in new round were Rocana, Midnight Ventures, Torch Capital, Doehler Ventures, KAS Venture Partners, Vanquish and Craig Kallman.
Investors spoke and Keurig Dr Pepper listened. Faced with investor backlash over strategic plan announced in Aug to acquire JDE Peet's and then split into coffee and beverage cos, KDP today said it's brought in private-equity giants Apollo and KKR to help rejigger deal even as it trotted out its smooth-talking chmn Bob Gamgort to close case to investors and analysts gathered in NY this morning. The ploy seemed to help: shares popped over 7% in trading late today, recovering roughly half the stock's erosion since Aug announcement. Meanwhile, as testimony to underlying strength of each co's fundamentals, KDP reported a strong Q3 performance even as JDE Peet's said it's on track to hit its fiscal year 2026 targets. Among nuggets of news contained in presentations today, execs confirmed that KDP for first time will launch coffee line that employs Keurig name, The Keurig Collective, with elevated packaging, 30% more coffee in each cup and distinctive blends.