Happi ’s Post

You simply can’t make this stuff up as we’ve entered the ‘Theatre of the Absurd’. It’s Shakespearean: both a comedy and tragedy. Green Thumb CEO Ben Kovler sent a letter to Boston Beer founder and Chairman Jim Koch to discuss a potential combination. In the letter, seen by The Wall Street Journal, Kovlar outlined the potential benefits of a combination, including allowing Green Thumb — listed in Canada and over-the-counter in the U.S. to be listed on a major U.S. exchange. It could also allow the beefed-up entity to innovate including prerolled joints, edibles and drinks, and give it more power to pursue mergers and acquisitions, Kovlar said. Who’s been smoking what? Oh. Does someone have a Cheech & Chong album on a constant replay? The WSJ reported late last week that Japanese whisky maker Suntory was in early talks for a possible Boston Beer acquisition. Boston Beer said in response that it remains “fully focused on our operations as an independent company, returning to our growth path.” Suntory said it wasn’t in negotiations. Okay … but they’re not saying they won’t be. Soon. Kovler said he would be able to make a superior offer for Boston Beer, adding that young people are drinking less alcohol, while the U.S. cannabis market—still working its way toward legalization for recreational use in many states—is ballooning. Boston Beer has a market capitalization of about $3.6 billion. The company’s shares surged more than 20% on Friday on Suntory’s interest. Green Thumb has a market capitalization of about $2.5 billion. A deal could be difficult to pull off, particularly given that cannabis consumption remains illegal at the federal level in the U.S. This wouldn’t be the first marriage between cannabis and alcohol companies. Anheuser-Busch InBev last year sold a handful of beer and beverage brands, including Shock Top and Blue Point, to cannabis company Tilray Brands. The year prior, Tilray agreed to buy craft brewer and hard-seltzer maker Montauk Brewing. Kovler founded Green Thumb, based in Chicago, in 2014. A self-described cross between Jerry Garcia and Warren Buffett, he signed off his letter with a Grateful Dead quote: “Once in a while you get shone the light, in the strangest of places if you look at it right.” Key point: “A self-described cross between Jerry Garcia and Warren Buffett.” Great. If this happens … I’ll get to see Warren Buffett in a tie-die T-shirt. Until then … “I will get by … I will survive.” — Grateful Dead Source: The Wall Street Journal #Beer #CraftBeer #Cannibis #ConsumerBehavior #BrandAwareness “The best beers are the ones we drink with friends.” — Beerconomy Cheers🍻! ✦✦✦ Stephen Carter King Chief of Growth and Marketing and Strategy + CEO of Beerconomy 🔸 Beer Market Analyst with beer market trends, insights, data and forecasts • Advisor • Sherpa • Thought Catalyst • Speaker • Publisher of ‘The Beerconomist’

How do you scale from zero to north of $50 million a year in sales? This week on the Business of Drinks podcast, we hear from Bill Shufelt, the co-founder of Athletic Brewing. Bill hasn’t just built a successful drinks company — he’s revolutionized the entire American market for non-alcoholic beer. And he’s done it in just six years. Bill gave up a comfortable life in finance. Why? Because he knew that if he was interested in drinking non-alcoholic beer, other people would be too. But it was an uphill battle, because non-alc beer was such a stigmatized product. He was turned down by almost every brewer he approached, and at times was reduced to approaching strangers in liquor store parking lots to help him sell his product. Today, Athletic Brewing Co. is valued at $500M. Last year, Athletic was ranked as the 26th fastest-growing private company in America by Inc. Magazine and named one of TIME’s “100 Most Influential Companies.” Bill explains how he built the company, and where he sees the market going next, including: - Why non-alc beer is not competing with bev-alc. Instead, it's a major volume saver for retail and on-premise accounts. - How Athletic got its first Whole Foods placement (awesome story!). - How 66 individual investors took Athletic from its Seed Round all the way to Series B. - Why DTC is the best channel for innovation. - What the U.S. non-alc drinks segment can learn from their counterparts in Europe. - The path Athletic sees for the NA segment to grow to 10-20% of all adult beverages. Listen in! https://lnkd.in/ecUK5aTg #nonalcoholic #beerindustry #drinksindustry #beer #beernews #beverageindustry #podcast Felicity Carter Erica Duecy

Amazing to hear Gavin Hattersley, CEO of Molson Coors Beverage Company, share insights at The Beverage Forum! Molson Coors' strategic shift towards "beyond beer" brands like Simply Spiked, ZOA Energy, and more has been a game-changer, driving growth in both top and bottom lines for the first time since 2005 (talk about impressive!). As Gavin rightly puts it, "Summer is when we'll win or lose as an industry." The success during May through Labor Day will determine the trajectory of the entire category. Molson Coors' approach to innovation has evolved significantly in recent years. They've transitioned from a strategy of throwing a plethora of products at retailers and distributors to a more deliberate approach. This shift has led to a more focused and effective product lineup, enhancing their overall strategy and market performance. One of their big bets for this year is Happy Thursday, a no carbonation beverage similar to Vitamin Water with alcohol. This innovative product was inspired by insights into trending beverages from TikTok. It's no secret that macroeconomic conditions have posed challenges, leading to a somewhat subdued outlook. Interestingly, despite ongoing innovation in cannabis beverages, the impact on Molson Coors remains minimal. Additionally, Molson Coors' response to the growth of brands like Athletic Brewing Co. includes innovations such as Birra Peroni 0.0 and Blue Moon Non-Alcoholic. Excited to see how the industry evolves, and looking forward to more discussions and insights from leaders like Gavin Hattersley at The Beverage Forum! #BeverageIndustry #Beer #Innovation #TheBeverageForum #IndustryInsights #CPG #Retail #NonAlch #CSD #Alcohol Danny Stepper LA Libations Wild Bill’s Craft Beverage Co.

How do you scale from zero to north of $50 million a year in sales? This week on the Business of Drinks podcast, we hear from Bill Shufelt, the co-founder of Athletic Brewing. Bill hasn’t just built a successful drinks company — he’s revolutionized the entire American market for non-alcoholic beer. And he’s done it in just six years. Bill gave up a comfortable life in finance. Why? Because he knew that if he was interested in drinking non-alcoholic beer, other people would be too. But it was an uphill battle, because non-alc beer was such a stigmatized product. He was turned down by almost every brewer he approached, and at times was reduced to approaching strangers in liquor store parking lots to help him sell his product. Today, Athletic Brewing Co. is valued at $500M. Last year, Athletic was ranked as the 26th fastest-growing private company in America by Inc. Magazine and named one of TIME’s “100 Most Influential Companies.” Bill explains how he built the company, and where he sees the market going next, including: - Why non-alc beer is not competing with bev-alc. Instead, it's a major volume saver for retail and on-premise accounts. - How Athletic got its first Whole Foods placement (awesome story!). - How 66 individual investors took Athletic from its Seed Round all the way to Series B. - Why DTC is the best channel for innovation. - What the U.S. non-alc drinks segment can learn from their counterparts in Europe. - The path Athletic sees for the NA segment to grow to 10-20% of all adult beverages. Listen in! https://lnkd.in/ecUK5aTg #nonalcoholic #beerindustry #drinksindustry #beer #beernews #beverageindustry #podcast Felicity Carter

A very good article by Adam Leyland from The Grocer on Carlsberg Group bid to buy Britvic plc and the potential coming together of a leading alcohol and soft-drinks company. The next few weeks will tell if Carlsberg is successful in it's quest to acquire Britvic, but it does open the question will the beverages industry now see other similar moves in this approach to M&A activity? Will other leading beer companies look to follow the lead set by Carlsberg? Would a leading spirits company look to acquire a softdrinks company with a strong mixer and tonic range? For any beverages company, strategic and long-term growth is all about winning "share of throat" through having a strong and varied portfolio of brands and products to meet consumer needs across different occasions and need states. M&A activity offers the potential to do this quicker than through organic growth. Interesting times ahead! #alcohol #softdrinks #categoryblurring #occasions #beverages #Carlsberg #britvic Carol Dunne Gwyneth Kelly David Deeley Brian Short Sheelagh Pentony Lars Jensen Paul Villis Gilles Halotel Mark Allen Jerry O'Keeffe Ian Chesworth Sergio Saavedra Rodríguez Birgit Schaaf Erika Minaguchi Jean-Philippe Delforge Bourcard Nesin John Craven Joshua Schall, MBA Farrah Gilsenan Marc LEJEUNE Erlon Pereira Alison Wilkinson Declan Stack Mark Gallo Xavier Herrera Francois Sonneville Kristof König Jean Noel Ortal Magdalena Edyta Przewoźnik Barbara Lezzer Alison Van Houten David Walsh Stephen Rannekleiv

When historians look back at 2023, the seismic shift of beer drinkers will be the headline. But for Molson Coors, the gains it experienced were the end result of plans put in motion years earlier. Beer & Beyond’s top stories reflect some of the major trends in the industry, but also the progress Molson Coors made in 2023 in growing its core brands, strengthening its Beyond Beer and premium portfolios, and laying the groundwork to continue its momentum into 2024. Here they are. Our top stories of the year:

Leading nonalcoholic brewer Athletic Brewing Co. raised $50m from General Atlantic "to increase production capacity and expand its offerings to meet rising consumer demand for nonalcoholic beer". Athletic is a unique brewer in that it exclusively offers alocohol-free beers, while at the same time being positioned as a craft brewer. It holds ~20% MS in alcohol-free segment (~$90m revenue) driving 32% of total nonalcoholic beer category growth (while being #20 largest brewer overall) The nonalcoholic segment is the fastest growing one in Beer, with strong tailwind especially from young consumers that are ditching alcohol consumption. While all incumbents are already in the race with a strong offering from their legacy brands (HEINEKEN Beverages AB InBev Molson Coors Beverage Company Diageo) and enormous advantage in go to market muscle, they cannot be also as aggressive in positioning itself as nonalcoholic brewers, an angle that is available to Athletic Brewing #fmcg #cpg #strategy ##mergersandacquisitions Frederic Fernandez & Associates

🍻 Cannabis giant buys up U.S. brewers. Canadian cannabis company Tilray Brands, Inc. is strengthening its presence in the U.S. beverage market by acquiring four beer brands from Molson Coors Beverage Company, according to The Wall Street Journal. The acquired brands include American microbreweries Terrapin Beer Co., Revolver, Hop Valley Brewing Company, and Atwater Brewery. This move follows Tilray's purchase of eight craft breweries from Anheuser-Busch InBev for a reported $85 million last year. The move, arriving at a challenging moment for craft breweries, vastly expands Tilray's footprint. It will now own 14 U.S. breweries — including ShockTop, Montauk, Blue Point, and Sweetwater — and global cannabis businesses in Canada, Europe, Latin America, and Australia.

In another significant milestone, ecoSPIRITS USA has announced that Breakthru Beverage Group, one of the largest North American beverage alcohol distributors, has joined the ecoSPIRITS Climate Partner Program as an Official Distributor Partner. Breakthru distributes a diverse portfolio of brands across many territories in both the United States and Canada and it already has spirits brands ready to be deployed in ecoTOTE format in Florida, followed by California in the coming months. The partnership will also accelerate ecoSPIRITS USA’s expansion in the state, bringing new brand partners, venues and distribution resources to the circular economy. There are around 4,000 beverage alcohol distributors in the United States, with the 10 largest controlling more than 72% of the market between them. Breakthru is one of the top three alcohol beverage distributors in the United States. It has a diverse portfolio of more than 6,000 wine, spirits and beer brands from many of the industry’s leading suppliers. Super thankful to Breakthru Group and kudos to Jessica Berry, Zdenek Kastanek, Trisha Chan for making this happen. #sustainability #gogreen #circulareconomy #endsingleuseglass #ecoSPIRITS

Has everybody entered this year's HIGH Spirits Awards? We want to see every brand Powered by SoRSE participating this year! Get your brand a medallion you can use in marketing and PR materials! Entry deadline is just around the corner - March 6! A note from Rachel Burkons on the High Spirits Awards (HSA) and why you should enter: WHAT IS IT? The High Spirits Awards is the first professionally judged infused beverage tasting competition, and is operated by sister company LA Spirits Awards, which has brought together some of the most respected and influential palates in beverage to judge this exciting new category. HOW DOES IT WORK? All Products are flighted based on their categories, blind tasted, and judged for flavor on their own merit. We are not judging for effect, but judges' consumption and dosage is carefully monitored. WHY ENTER? In this ever-growing and competitive marketplace, conveying quality is increasingly important to consumers and buyers alike. Give your brand a leg up with an expert-backed seal of approval that opens doors, generates buzz, and drives opportunity. Plus, who doesn't like shiny medallions? https://lnkd.in/ePsKCeJY #awards #contest #highspiritsawards #poweredbysorse #flavor #beverageindustry #drinkcannabis #beverages #cannabisbeverages #cbd #thc #hemp #hempd9 BevNET.com, Inc.