VT's Lawson's Finest Liquids hired its first outside CEO in Adeline Druart as co-founders Sean and Karen Lawson move into their next phase, taking a "step back" while "maintain[ing] positions as stewards of the brand." Adeline's background is outside of beer but firmly rooted in co's home state VT, most recently as prexy of Vermont Creamery, a specialty dairy co "widely celebrated by artisan cheese lovers" with similar missions around quality, culture and sustainability. Adeline "led the successful transition of the company from founder-owned to Fortune 250 US company Land O'Lakes in 2017," and also held VP position at Land O'Lakes Dairy Foods Division thru Feb 2023, announcement highlighted.

Regulators from Texas and Massachusetts reviewed troubling trends of illegal alc bev shipments into their respective states during NCSLA annual conference in Oklahoma City yesterday. Texas requires reporting from both shippers (like wineries) and common carriers (UPS and FedEx), exec director of state alc bev commission Thomas Graham explained. In 4th qtr of last yr, common carriers reported around 537,500 alcohol shipments, but state received reports for only about 233K shipments from the shippers themselves. That suggests to agency that "57% of the shipments last quarter" were "illegal alcohol shipments." Before agency started analyzing reports, he "expected…a big number," but "didn't expect it to be that big."

Pair of seasonal fruit-forward beers are launching this summer. Busch Light announced limited-edition Busch Light Peach as Labatt Blue Light intro'd new apple flavor. Busch Light Peach follows the "hugely popular" Busch Light Apple release, which "was retired last year" after its 3-yr run from 2020-2022, AB noted in announcement. Seasonal offering is available starting this wk in 12, 24 and 30pks of 12oz cans, as well as 25oz single serves at select retailers in 37 states until it sells out.

High Noon sales soared to new heights this Memorial Day holiday period. Its $$ grew 70%, gained nearly $10 mil to $23.8 mil total for 2 wks thru Jun 4 in Circana multi-outlet + convenience data. That put $$ ahead of all spirit brand fams but Titos for the period in these channels, jumping ahead of Crown Royal, Fireball, Jack Daniel's, and Smirnoff spirits families. Sales also catapulted higher than other fast-growin' beer brands like New Belgium (+32% to $22.82 mil) and Yuengling (+40% to $22.78 mil), putting it at 14th largest among beer families. Tho multiple other beer families posted larger overall $$ growth during the holiday period including Modelo family (+23%, $39 mil), Coors fam (+29%, $32 mil), Miller Lite fam (+23%, $21 mil), Twisted Tea (+46%, $18 mil), Simply (mostly incremental $12 mil), and Corona beer fam (+8%, $11 mil).

Late last week, AB's senior leadership, including ABI ceo Michel Doukeris, met with 8 recent panel chairmen (as INSIGHTS noted yesterday) and INSIGHTS spoke briefly to current panel chair Johnny Johnson of Silver Eagle and past panel chair Andy McCain of Hensley Bevs. "The intent of the meeting, which was requested by AB, was to get our ideas and input in regard to the BL situation," Andy later said in e-mail. "Great discussion and AB listened intently," according to Andy. AB told distribs "they would get back to us next week (this week now), and explained there would have to be some nuance to solutions as no two states are the same." They emphasized as Andy said: "our relationship with AB over the years has been built on trust and now more than ever we must keep that trust."

Proxies, which we recently profiled (BBI, Apr 18), is making its first foray into cans with Sparkling Rose packed in 250-ml (8.45-oz) units. "Pour into a flute if you're feeling fancy," can copy instructs users, in nod at more elegant positioning of bottled entries. The rosé blends riesling grapes and strawberries with white tea and zest of lime for palate effect that's dry, high-acid and just slightly savory, as co describes it.

Non-alc bevs and their inputs rose a modest 0.3% between Apr and May on unadjusted basis, leaving 12-mo inflation for category at 8.7%, per Consumer Price Index released today by govt's data arm, Bureau of Labor Statistics. When adjusted for seasonal factors, it was up a more robust 0.7% after 0.2% monthly gain in Mar and 0.1% decline in Apr. Among key bev classes, CSDs eased off 0.7%, -0.1% on adjusted basis, for 12-mo growth of 9.5%. But noncarbs (excluding frozen items) soared 0.9%, +1.7% on unadjusted basis, for 10% rate over past 12 mos.