Beer Marketer's Insights
Eurisko Beer Seeks Buyer in Asheville; Buffalo's Thin Man Closes Flagship Taproom to Focus Elsewhere
An Asheville brewery is on the outs, as Eurisko Beer Co is looking for a buyer and offering up its facility/brands as a turnkey operation. "I have come to the ultimate conclusion that Eurisko will not be able to continue operating into the years to come and have started taking steps to find someone to take over our space," owner Zac Harris posted on social media. He made difficult decision to let staff go and enter "maintenance mode" to keep taproom operational, according to post, tho Zac anticipates Eurisko will stay open with limited hours/capacity thru summer. Brewery equipment is listed for $365K with oppy to take over the 2-story taproom, while branding and recipes can be included "at no additional cost if desired." But property isn't owned and landlord is seeking to sign a new lease with prospective buyer.
Two established craft brewers recently upped their involvement in different parts of the non-alc bev world. Stone Brewing expanded partnership with coffee copacker NuZee, entering 5-yr "global licensing agreement" that will see it develop specialty coffee items around Stone's most popular year-round styles for retail, foodservice and e-comm channels, cos announced and sibling pub Beverage Business INSIGHTS reported. New line due this quarter will adopt branding and flavor characteristics of Stone's Arrogant Bastard Ale, Buenaveza Salt & Lime Lager and Xocoveza in formats including its proprietary single-serve DripKit pour-overs, single-serve brew bags, whole bean 12-oz bags and compostable capsules. And NuZee "intends to build a strong direct-to-consumer business" thru dedicated website stoneroasting.com, which will begin taking pre-orders at the end of July. Stone marketing veep Erin Smith explained rationale this way: "There is a definite overlap in what attracts people to craft beer and to craft coffee," citing quality, intention and passion.
FX Matt Creates 2 New Positions: Dave Mevoli Joins as CSO; Ben Savage CMO of All FX Matt Brands
Not long after announcing its deal to acquire Flying Dog, FX Matt is creating 2 new exec positions to help push the company forward. On sales side, industry vet Dave Mevoli will join as Chief Sales Officer overseeing all FXM brands, most recently COO of Fishers Island following previous roles with Ommegang and Bell's among others. And on mktg front, former Flying Dog CMO Ben Savage will become Chief Marketing Officer across all FXM brands effective immediately, co announced late yesterday.
Walmart to Mandate Unique UPCs for Seasonal Offerings to Ease E-Commerce, BIECC Alerts Brewers
Small brewer seasonal programs now face major new challenge for selling-in seasonal brands to at least one big chain retailer and maybe others soon, too. Expanding on mandate initiated in other categories, Walmart will now require alc bev products "that re-use UPCs to transition to unique codes," according to release from Beer Industry Electronic Commerce Coalition (BIECC). Recall, BIECC is cross-tier work group designed to ease transition to e-commerce, managed by NBWA and led by the org's state affairs veep Dave Christman.
One month after cutting national distribution to only CA and nixing Christmas Ale (see Jun 12 issue), parent co Sapporo made tuff call to "cease operations and liquidate" Anchor Brewing, co announced and various local papers first reported. Just the latest in a string of tuff news stories in craftland regarding sales and/or closures over the last few mos. Sales declined steeply for years but given brand's storied past as an early craft brewer, this one stings more than most for many in the industry.
Prime Day sales rose nearly 6% on first day to $6.4 bil vs first day of year-earlier event, per Adobe Analytics Insights view cited by Reuters. Adobe Analytics expects event to bring in $12-13 bil over its 2-day duration . . . D&D Source of Life Holdings, which recently made $3 mil investment in Reed's Inc and set bev import deal (BBI, May 31), has placed its sole shareholder, Shufen Deng, on REED board.
Cann-Ade was able to count on getting a bit more pop for its crowdfunding effort on StartEngine.com with endorsement video that was taped by football legend Donovan McNabb, whose image also popped up on electronic billboard in Times Square last week. It comes as organic-certified CBD elixir launched by concussed former college football player Ben Mogul out of Ft Lauderdale, Fla, treads deliberately in just 2 key regions as it vindicates concept. So far it's pulled in $369K at enterprise valuation of $18.97 mil, on way to as much as $1.23 mil via mechanism. Financials included in crowdfund site indicate it's very early days revenue-wise, just $172K last year. Tho still youthful Mogul is seasoned entrepreneur by virtue of operating integrative health venture called Paramount Integrative that was earlier outgrowth of his college football injury while at Webber International (BBI, Jan 24 2022).
The gov't released encouraging news on inflation yesterday, reporting that Consumer Price Index climbed 3% in Jun, moderating 4% gain of 12 mos concluding in May and just one-third of 9% peak last summer. How did bevs fare? They actually softened a tad, Bureau of Labor Statistics data showed. Non-alc bevs and inputs, about 1% of weighted CPI, edged down 0.1% in Jun after ebbing 0.1% in Apr and rising 0.7% in May, on seasonally adjusted basis. For 12 mos thru Jun, they're up 7.6%. Milk sagged 0.3% after declines of 2% and 0.6% prior 2 mos. For 12 months they're down 0.7%. Alc bevs rose 0.5% after monthly gains of 0.5% in Apr and 0.1% in May, also on seasonally adjusted basis. They're up 4.4% over 12 mos.
In likely harbinger of what we'll see from other big bevcos when they report in coupla weeks, PepsiCo reported robust 2d quarter as it rode healthy pricing to continued revenue gains. Net revenue grew 10.4% to $22.32 bil despite volume declining 1% in bevs and 3% in food. Operating profit rose 7.6% to $3.66 bil. Gross margin widened to 54.7% from 53.4%. At time CPG cos have been flayed for exploiting inflationary environment to soak consumers, in analyst q&a this morning, vice chmn/cfo Hugh Johnston said gross margin improvements were attributable solely to greater operating efficiency. "Pricing is up exactly in line with our commodity inflation," both in teens, so they're offsetting each other, he said. In prepared remarks, chmn/ceo Ramon Laguarta listed "holistic cost management initiatives aimed at maximizing labor efficiencies, unlocking capacity constraints, advancing digitalization across our organization, and minimizing areas of waste throughout our value chain," even as robust advertising & marketing spend coaxed consumers into paying higher prices for PEP products. Still, Wells Fargo's Chris Carey worried that "the one knock is volume missed" in all segments besides Frito-Lay North America, "maybe heightening a 'durability' debate." But PEP clearly thinks the run can go on, as it upped its guidance for full year.
Jordan Shulman, who’d spent past 2 years guiding sales assault on US for Australia-based kombucha marketer Remedy Drinks, has segued to vp sales of Local Weather, aluminum-bottle hydration brand that turned some heads at Expo West last spring (BBI, Mar 13). Bay Area-based Shulman had earlier served at Vita Coco, LifeAid Beverage, Verve Coffee Roasters and Better Booch . . . The veteran new-age bev exec Bob Miller, whose history goes back thru brands like MyMuse, Zen WTR, Sportwater, Function and Fuze, has signed on as divisional sales mgr for BLK water as it hits gas in NY metro, where Bob has long been based . . . The publicly traded rollup play Golden Grail, which numbers Sway Energy, Spider Energy, Cause Water, KOZ Water, Trevi Fruit Essence Water and Tickle Water in its portfolio, has elevated the energy drink vet Russ Kaffenberger to chief revenue officer. Russ had come over to Golden Grail when it acquired Sway Energy after serving at bevcos like Monster, Nutrabolt, Bang and Dr Pepper Snapple Group. He reports to ceo Steven Hoffman.