Industry News

America’s Beer Distributors Applaud Continued Growth for Craft Beer

Kathleen Joyce - - NBWA News

The National Beer Wholesalers Association (NBWA) – which represents the interests of America's more than 3,000 licensed, independent beer distributors – applauds America's craft brewers for their continued growth and entrepreneurial spirit, which adds energy and excitement to the American beer industry. The Brewers Association (BA) released data today showing that production volume by American craft brewers, as defined by BA, increased 8 percent during the first half of the year.

NBWA Statement on Department of Justice Settlement With Anheuser-Busch InBev Permitting Acquisition of SABMiller

Kathleen Joyce - - National Beer Wholesalers Association

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – The Department of Justice announced that it has agreed to a settlement with Anheuser-Busch InBev (ABI) that will permit ABI to proceed with its acquisition of SABMiller.
National Beer Wholesalers Association President and CEO Craig Purser issued the following statement in response:
"The Department of Justice has imposed conditions to this merger – one of the largest deals in history and the largest ever in the beer industry – with the goal of maintaining competition in the beer industry and ensuring the continuation of the robust and competitive independent distribution system. The DOJ recognizes that the American independent distribution system is essential to a competitive marketplace and to providing the vast choice of beer available to consumers. The DOJ's actions go toward ensuring that the U.S. market can remain a 'consumer pull' market through independent distribution, where consumer demand is what determines product choice and variety, and to prevent a 'supplier push' model where consumer choice is reduced.

AB InBev Wins U.S. Antitrust Approval for SABMiller Deal

David McLaughlin - - Bloomberg

Anheuser-Busch InBev NV won U.S. antitrust approval for its takeover of SABMiller Plc, after the maker of Budweiser agreed to give up ownership of the Miller brand and open the door to greater competition from craft beers.
AB InBev will sell SABMiller's stake in MillerCoors LLC, separating the two brands, and refrain from practices that restrict distribution of smaller rival brews, thus protecting the ability of craft and import beers to compete, the Justice Department said in a statement Wednesday. The settlement will prevent any increase in concentration in the U.S. beer industry, according to the statement.

Craft brewers eye merger of A-B InBev and SABMiller warily

Lisa Brown - - St. Louis Post-Dispatch

As the combination of the world's two biggest beermakers moves closer to completion, craft brewers remain worried about the implications of competing against an even larger rival.

The merger of Anheuser-Busch InBev and SABMiller, announced last fall, has already gained antitrust approval from the European Union, Australia and other countries. Regulatory approval in the United States is drawing near, according to Reuters. If the sale is finalized, Belgium-based A-B InBev would control about 29 percent of beer sold worldwide.

What the craft beer acquisition trend means for the industry's future

Carolyn Heneghan - - Food Dive

As 2015 came to a close, Anheuser-Busch InBev purchased three craft breweries in five days, and a handful of other major brewers made their first craft brewery acquisitions in 2015. With this much action surrounding craft beer, it's clear that major brewers — and the rest of the industry — recognize that the entire landscape of beer manufacturing in the U.S. is shifting.

With dozens of craft beer transactions and even more rumors surfacing in the past year, U.S. beer manufacturers are in for a shift in the overall beer landscape. Whether they distinguish their brands from craft beer or jump on the acquisitions trend, manufacturers will contend with the inevitable growth of craft, as beer industry players say this acquisition spree has only just begun.

America now has more breweries than ever. And that might be a problem.

Fritz Hahn - - Washington Post

It was a startling announcement: As of Dec. 1, 2015, the Brewers Association had counted 4,144 breweries in the United States, the most ever operating simultaneously in the history of the country. According to historians, the previous high-water mark of 4,131 was set in 1873.

The new number includes giant Budweiser, artisan Dogfish Head and your neighborhood brewpub. Although beer industry observers have known this day was coming, the pace of growth was explosive: At the end of 2011, there were 2,033 breweries, or fewer than half as many as now. In 2005, there were only 1,447. And 25 years ago? The Brewers Association, a trade group for small and independent breweries, logged a mere 284 in 1990.

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