Shanken’s Impact Newsletter, the leading source for exclusive data on the alcoholic beverage industry in the United States and internationally. Every issue features up-to-the-minute data and analysis on trends in the worldwide drinks market.
AMID A GLOBAL PANDEMIC, AN UNEVEN economic recovery, supply chain constraints, and other challenges, the U.S. spirits market continues to churn forward, with premium and above brands at the vanguard. Impact Databank estimates that the total U.S. spirits category reached a new record high of 260 million 9-liter cases in 2021 on a 2% increase. Last year’s spirits market growth lagged the average annual rate of the past five years by about a percentage point, but some of that deceleration was likely due to the difficult comparison against 2020, which was boosted by a pandemic-driven retail surge and pantry-loading during the initial wave of the virus. By contrast, 2021 saw a broad—if incomplete—return to the on-premise, accompanied by a corresponding slowdown in retail sales. Taking a look at the longer-term…
AMID A BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT PRESENTING NO shortage of challenges—from a supply chain squeeze, to rising inflation, to the persistence of the Covid pandemic—the U.S. spirits category delivered another year of growth in 2021, reaching a new record of 260 million 9-liter cases, according to Impact Databank. As our exclusive report on the top 25 spirits brands in the U.S. demonstrates, brands from categories across the spectrum succeeded in increasing volume over the past year, even against a relatively tough comp from 2020, when the off-premise boom pushed sales higher for the market’s best-known labels. The top 25 brands’ share of the total spirits market reached 45.8% last year, up from 41.2% in 2015, propelled by strong increases from Tito’s, Fireball, High Noon Sun Sips, Jameson, Malibu, Patrón, and Maker’s Mark,…
TREASURY WINE ESTATES IS PARTNERing with Martha Stewart on a new release for 19 Crimes. Similar to 19 Crimes’ ongoing partnership with Snoop Dogg, the label’s partnership with Martha Stewart and Marquee Brands, which runs her eponymous brand, will support the release of 19 Crimes Martha’s Chard. It’s launching this month in California and will ramp up to national distribution February 1 carrying a suggested retail price of $12 a bottle. “Just like her creative collaborator and friend Snoop, Martha Stewart also embodies the spirit of 19 Crimes – disruption and culture creation,” said Treasury Wine Estates’ vice president of marketing John Wardley. “We couldn’t be more excited to welcome another absolute icon of modern American culture to the 19 Crimes family.” 19 Crimes sells more than 2 million cases…
BREAKTHRU BEVERAGE GROUP HAS announced an agreement to acquire Missouri wholesaler Major Brands for an undisclosed sum. Major Brands has annual revenues estimated at above $400 million. The company distributes wine, spirits, beer and non-alcoholic beverages, has a workforce of 600 people, and serves more than 9,000 retail customers. Breakthru’s co-owners the Wirtz family took a controlling stake in Major in 2020. Now the distributor is coming fully into the Breakthru fold. Breakthru had estimated 2021 revenues of $6.1 billion, according to Impact.…
CONSTELLATION BRANDS HAS STRUCK a deal with Coca-Cola to target the booming premixed cocktail category through the latter’s Fresca brand. Under the agreement, Constellation will produce, market, distribute, and launch Fresca Mixed, a new line of spirit-based, ready-to-drink cocktails. Fresca is currently the fastest growing soft drink trademark in the Coca-Cola Company’s U.S. portfolio and is used as a cocktail mixer, a soft drink, and a zero-calorie, zero-sugar sparkling soda water. Constellation’s Fresca Mixed premixed cocktails are expected to roll out this year. The alliance furthers a trend of blurring lines across the drinks business, in which Molson Coors is partnered with Coca-Cola on the Topo Chico hard seltzer brand, Boston Beer has aligned with PepsiCo to produce Hard Mtn Dew, and Beam Suntory has agreed to collaborate with Boston…
BACARDI LTD HAS FIRED A NEW SALVO IN THE LONG-RUNNING BATTLE OVER the Havana Club trademark in the U.S. market. The spirits giant filed a lawsuit in federal court against the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) alleging that the agency acted illegally when it restored the trademark for Havana Club to Cuban government-owned exporter Cubaexport in 2016. The filing alleges that the USPTO did not have the discretionary power to make that move, which occurred roughly a decade after Cubaexport was denied its re-registration of the trademark in 2006. Cubaexport, which is partnered with Pernod Ricard for global distribution of Havana Club, originally gained the U.S. trademark in 1976, but has been barred from selling the brand in the U.S. due to the embargo on Cuban goods. This suit…
