OAKBROOK TERRACE, Ill. -- The year in beer looked unlike any other.
On the domestic front, Anheuser-Busch and MillerCoors continued to scoop up regionally known craft brewers—Saint Archer for Chicago-based MillerCoors, and Breckenridge, Four Peaks and 10 Barrel (among others) for A-B—while Pabst Brewing launched both craft and import divisions. Even importer Constellation Brands got into the game, acquiring San Diego-based Ballast Point Brewing & Spirits and partnering with celebrity chef Rick Bayless to create a line of craft beers inspired by traditional Mexican ingredients.
Meanwhile, Heineken USA trimmed back its portfolio by discontinuing tequila-flavored beer Desperados to focus on its core brands: imports Heineken, Dos Equis, Strongbow and Tecate. It also joined Constellation in basking in the glow from south of the border as Mexican imports Dos Equis (+16%), Corona Extra (+14%) and Modelo Especial (+24%) all grew volume sales in convenience stores by double digits, according to IRI data.
Overall, import beers grew volume sales in c-store by 14%, joining craft (+26%) and cider (+30%) as the big winners for the category as younger legal-aged drinkers entered the category with a more complex palate and a desire to set their own trends.
One other unexpected trend, almost single-handedly driven by the remarkable growth of the craft beer Not Your Father’s Root Beer, had U.S. brewers learning the ropes of hard soda. The result: A-B launched Best Damn Root Beer in December, MillerCoors developed the Henry’s Hard Soda brand, which launched in January, and Pabst partnered with the prodigal, Not Your Father’s-maker Small Town Brewery to take the brand national.
On top of all of the above, one of the largest consumer-product acquisition deals ever looms as the biggest brewer in the world, A-B parent Anheuser-Busch InBev, wades through the regulatory swamp in its effort to purchase No. 2 brewer SABMiller, majority partner in MillerCoors.
Admittedly not a U.S. play, the approximately $107-billion deal will create the fifth-largest consumer-products company in the world, but of course the real news domestically is what it won’t include. Molson Coors, the other half of MillerCoors, is in line to take over all of the partnership’s brands in the United States to the tune of $12 billion. Milwaukee may never be the same again
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