3-Tier System Under Siege by AB InBev

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Created: Thursday, November 06 2014 08:57

November 6, 2014

Not only is AB InBev guzzling up craft brewers all over the country, they are also buying the related brewpubs, effectively removing the middle tier and setting themselves up as retailers as well. So much for the so-called protections of the 3-tier system.

AB InBev to Acquire Oregon Craft BrewerPurchase of 10 Barrel Brewing Is Company’s Latest Move to Tap U.S. Craft-Beer Industry

Wall Street Journal

By Mike Esterl

November 5, 2014

Anheuser-Busch InBev NV said Wednesday it is acquiring 10 Barrel Brewing Co., the latest move by the world’s largest brewer to tap the small but fast-growing U.S. craft-beer industry.

Bend, Ore.-based 10 Barrel expects to sell about 40,000 barrels of beer this year, according to AB InBev, which didn’t disclose financial details.

Annual U.S. beer consumption totals roughly 200 million barrels. Nearly half of that is brewed by Belgium’s AB InBev, whose globe-trotting brands include Budweiser, Corona and Stella Artois.

But big, mainstream brands have seen volumes slip in recent years as Americans drop mild-tasting lagers to experiment with India Pale Ale and other styles sold by smaller regional craft brewers. More than 300 such breweries opened their doors last year alone.

Sales of 10 Barrel have roughly doubled in the past year, according to a person familiar with the matter. Its top-selling beer is Apocalypse IPA, accounting for nearly half of its volume.

AB InBev announced in February it was acquiring Patchogue, N.Y.-based Blue Point Brewing Co., which sold about 60,000 barrels last year. It didn’t disclose financial terms of that deal, either, although some industry observers pegged the price tag at around $25 million.

The brewing giant also acquired Goose Island, Chicago’s largest craft brewer, in 2011 for $38.8 million.

Recent M&A deals have priced some regional U.S. craft brewers at more than $1,000 a barrel, according to a person familiar with multiples. The vast majority of the country’s roughly 3,000 craft brewers remain privately or family owned.

AB InBev said it expects to close its 10 Barrel acquisition by the end of 2014. In addition to buying the company’s brewery in Bend, it will also acquire 10 Barrel’s two existing brewpubs in Bend and Boise, Idaho, and a third brewpub scheduled to open in Portland, Ore. in early 2015.

First Beverage Group acted as financial adviser to 10 Barrel.



Read more & watch the CNN video: http://money.cnn.com/2014/11/06/news/companies/anheuser-busch-beer-10-barrel/

SF Giants: Pro Athletes or Ambassadors of Alcohol-Related Bad Behavior?

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Created: Thursday, October 23 2014 18:07

Sergio Romo Caught Restraining Girlfriend Just Hours After Locker Room Binge Celebration

By Bruce Lee Livingston, Executive Director / CEO, Alcohol Justice

Professional athletes, deeply submerged in the cultural norm that is alcohol in sports, are both beneficiaries and victims of Big Alcohol’s investment. Inflated salaries and lucrative endorsement contracts mask the normalization of unhealthy drinking behaviors, in the locker rooms, and just off the fields. They are perversely glamorized and sensationalized. The take-away message for young fans is simple: celebrating your victories or easing the pain of defeat is best done with booze in both hands.

The most recent well-reported and inappropriate display of locker room excess followed the NL Pennant win. San Francisco Giant pitcher phenom, Madison Bumgarner, chugged four cans of Bud Light at once in the well-televised celebration late Thursday night. It was followed by SF Giant Sergio Romo’s abusive behavior towards his girlfriend outside a bar on Friday at 2:00 A.M. Romo’s allegedly alcohol-fueled domestic violence and disrespect to the SFPD was only reported on the following Monday.

Sergio Romo, a spokesperson for Hennessy cognac, seems to have dodged a bullet when his incident was quickly swept under the MLB rug of invisibility and behind the SFPD cloak of “an abundance of caution.” This was done, no doubt, to spare the league from the kind of firestorm of negative PR that reigned down on the NFL over recent highly publicized incidents of player involved DUIs and alcohol-related violence against women.The fact that Romo was not hauled in to the station eerily reminds me of the Kansas City Chiefs football player Jovan Belcher who police let go drunk at 4 A.M. (caught on tape also) and then went in to kill his baby’s mother and then himself. Police in SF apparently also give a pass to athletes.

It’s time for professional sports to take a major step back from its codependent relationship with Big Alcohol. While crazy lucrative for the companies involved it is intrinsically toxic to players and fans alike, especially underage youth who see their newfound heroes guzzling bubbles, suds and spirits on TV. It’s time for Sergio to focus on pitching baseballs instead of booze (P.S. Full disclosure, I love the guy for his “I Just Look Illegal T-Shirt” and I watched the whole game with my kids).

Big Alcohol has an unquenchable thirst for new consumers and pours its biggest promo bucks into professional sports because that’s where the returns are the greatest. The industry’s egregious leader – Anheuser-Busch InBev – at half-a-billion dollars a year in ads, sponsorships, and celebrity endorsements, casts the widest net. Not only does it prompt mega sales of marginal product, but it catches 20-30 million underage youth, searing beer brands into their developing brains, and encouraging often harm-producing early consumption of alcohol.

Baseball, please don’t act like football. Grow up and lose the booze and the domestic violence. Stop the locker room champagne and Bud Light celebrations.