{"id":2734,"date":"2015-08-18T06:00:23","date_gmt":"2015-08-18T11:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/?p=2734"},"modified":"2015-08-17T12:40:53","modified_gmt":"2015-08-17T17:40:53","slug":"status-quo-you-know-is-latin-for-the-mess-were-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/?p=2734","title":{"rendered":"Status quo, you know, is Latin for ‘the mess we’re in’."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"NYFRB-1\"<\/a>Not long ago as the industry began to experience a slowdown in shipments and sales, the industry pundits focused on\u00a0the\u00a0lack of creativity and exciting new products.\u00a0 When beer was compared to spirits, one could argue that this might just be the case.\u00a0 The beer industry did not make an effort to bring any new products that really moved the beer needle until the craft renaissance, and then it all changed.<\/p>\n

Beer has always seemed to overcome handicaps which slowed down the industries continued growth.\u00a0 Crafts and their creativity came to beers rescue at the right time.\u00a0 We have all seen the results which continue even today however two key models continue on regardless of all the issues.<\/p>\n

One is ABIs continued and unrelenting model, which has resulted in ABI losing over 10 million bbls.\u00a0 Industry rags have written once again about this and now more pressure is on AB wholesalers for volume.\u00a0 ABs volume loss is being blamed on the wholesalers.\u00a0 If that was the case, maybe\u00a0InBev should consider who, originally, built AB into the leader in our industry?\u00a0 My money is on the wholesalers.<\/p>\n

Secondly, applications for new breweries seem to have slowed somewhat but label approval is increasing.\u00a0 This trend is not changing\u00a0continuing the pressure on wholesalers and retailers.\u00a0 Chain real estate has been a premium for some time and continues to be so.\u00a0 Wholesalers are pushing back on venders as new products and packages present logistic and warehousing\u00a0problems plus the issue of out of date\u00a0product which is killing brands.<\/p>\n

ABI is not going to change their business model any more than the craft industry will reduce the new number of new products and packages.\u00a0 So the question is what is next for the industry?<\/p>\n

Local is the new model.\u00a0 Even the chains focus now on quality local products first if they have a flavor or brand that is popular.\u00a0 The on premise is even more local.\u00a0 This is a recent trend that also seems to have staying power and should continue to be that way.<\/p>\n

Just when it looks like the industry has hit a wall, along comes something unusual and very unique.\u00a0 Walking into a Portland sports\u00a0bar this past weekend, hanging on the wall was a sign, now serving Not Your Father\u2019s Root beer<\/em>.\u00a0 This new product is the talk of the industry and is on fire.\u00a0 The beer, at 5.9% ABV, tastes just like old fashioned root beer; in fact the bartender said some customers like this beer over ice cream for an adult root beer float.\u00a0 Now did anyone see this coming?<\/p>\n

It will be interesting to watch how this brand and flavor does in the coming year.\u00a0 With a caloric count of 371 per 12 ounce bottle and 31 carbs, it is a sweet tasting product.\u00a0 Will it become a category on its own?\u00a0 Regardless, it is new, it is different, it is exciting and it is creating new customers.\u00a0 It is also a product with nice margins.<\/p>\n

With products like NYFRB it makes business models like ABIs and the wave of new SKUs, manageable.\u00a0 Remember that the term status quo is Latin for “the mess we are in!”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Not long ago as the industry began to experience a slowdown in shipments and sales, the industry pundits focused on\u00a0the\u00a0lack of creativity and exciting new products.\u00a0 When beer was compared to spirits, one could argue that this might just be the case.\u00a0 The beer industry did not make an effort to bring any new products […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2xRTi-I6","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2734"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2734"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2734\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2830,"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2734\/revisions\/2830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}