Beer Marketer's Insights - New Glarus Nipping at Miller Lite's Heels in Wisc Scans as Shipments Slip Slightly to 231K Bbls

Despite ending 2022 still a bit behind its prior 2019 peak, New Glarus feels good about the year it had and thinks 2023 looks "promising," founder/prexy Deb Carey told CBN. The co's total shipments slipped just slightly last yr to around 231K bbls. That's only about 2% below what the co sold in 2019. Major difference is that 40% of co's biz was draft in those days. And the state's many bars and taverns have not all reopened, Deb shared. That said, co still does all its biz in just one state. New Glarus holds close to 5 share of beer biz in Wisconsin, based on Beer Inst estimates that total category volume dipped 1.5% to around 4.7 mil bbls last yr. Co sells almost as much beer in the state as Constellation. It passed Pabst years ago in that co's former home state.New Glarus Brand $$ Ahead of Coors Off-Prem, Closing in on Miller Lite Over last couple yrs, New Glarus built its off-premise biz significantly to the point that it's passing some major megabrands and nipping at the heels of others. Total New Glarus $$ ended 2022 ahead of Coors, Deb shared, and only slightly behind Miller Lite in IRI multi-outlet + convenience data. In fact, for a 33-wk period in middle of last yr, co edged ahead of Miller Lite in terms of off-premise $$ (volume a different picture, natch). Canned 12-pks of lead brand Spotted Cow now the #6 single-brand beer package by $$ in the state, only a bit behind co's catchall 6-pk bottles (for which New Glarus still uses one SKU). Spotted Cow bottled 12-pks just outside of top-15 SKUs in WI scans.Those are somewhat surreal stats for Deb, she acknowledged. Like other major growth milestones for the co, "I can't really wrap my head around it," she told us. New Glarus is "in the right place at the right time," it seems to her. Consumers continue to show growing interest in "experimenting and thinking about flavor beyond what's most convenient." She attributes the co's ability to satisfy that interest to brewmaster/husband Dan's "dedication to trying to get it right" and a "whole team of people" with a "vested interest" in shared success.Over 40 Share of Craft Off-Premise; Moon Man as Big as Top 3 IPAs Given New Glarus' strength in overall beer biz in Wisconsin, it's far-and-away #1 brand fam in craft in the state. It finished 2022 at 43 share of off-premise craft sales in state IRI data, Deb shared, bigger than next 8 brand fams combined. Its hop-forward Moon Man, which co bills as a "No Coast Pale Ale," way outperforms bigger IPAs in the state, too, she pointed out. It's well over 2x the size of New Belgium's Voodoo Ranger Imperial IPA and around the size of NBB Imperial, Bell's Two Hearted and Karben4 Fantasy Factory combined, Deb showed.Sales Solid Despite Price Increase; Madison Up Big in Jan; Plant Improvements Tho trends in January not exactly "spectacular," Deb said, she's been encouraged so far that a price increase doesn't seem to be having much of a negative impact. Draft sales are around 90% of what they were pre-Covid "and inching up," tho she's not sure the on-premise biz will ever be quite what it once was. Still, the co's sales in Madison jumped a huge 30% for the mo, she reported.With new beers coming out (look for a specialty pilsner debuting this spring) and a new canning line coming in to support some of its smaller brands, Deb feels good about New Glarus' prospects in 2023. It also continues to enjoy the benefits of an on-site CO2 plant the co spent yrs working on and brought online just as a shortage of the crucial gas hit some small breweries hard in recent yrs. Tho there's still "a lot of anxiety" and "angst" out there, Deb feels things calming, the supply chain regaining more stability and generally thinks things are lookin' up.

New Glarus Nipping at Miller Lite's Heels in Wisc Scans as Shipments Slip Slightly to 231K Bbls

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