{"id":590,"date":"2013-02-19T08:36:34","date_gmt":"2013-02-19T13:36:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/?p=590"},"modified":"2013-02-19T08:36:34","modified_gmt":"2013-02-19T13:36:34","slug":"i-was-born-at-night-it-just-wasnt-last-night","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/?p=590","title":{"rendered":"I was born at night…it just wasn’t last night!"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Prior to the 1980’s, Heineken, for all practical purposes, had the import market to itself.\u00a0 They were by far the number #1 import, and had been for years, even though their distribution system was primarily through wine and spirit houses.\u00a0 The growth of Corona,\u00a0which took off\u00a0with the change to the clear bottle, and then the move to six-packs and twelve-packs; was nothing short of amazing.\u00a0 It seemed like Corona passed Heineken standing still.\u00a0 Heineken knew something had to change.<\/p>\n

Around 1990, Heineken approached Glazer’s in Texas. Glazer\u2019s had statewide distribution rights, and got an agreement to duel the brand with the Miller network.\u00a0 Glazer’s was set up for the off premise with\u00a0limited, if any,\u00a0on premise (draft) support. The Miller network was to service the on premise.\u00a0 This situation, along with Heileman Brewing Co. assigning brands to competing wholesalers, caused the wholesalers to have the state franchise laws modified. This was done in an effort to eliminate any dueling of brands,\u00a0while keeping the line extensions with the current distributor.\u00a0 In 1999, Heineken then ended the dueling (grandfathered in) with Glazer’s. The MC network got the distribution rights for both the on and off premise.<\/p>\n

The recent Modern Brewery Age<\/em> magazine ran a commentary called “The Road Ahead for ABI\/Modelo.”\u00a0 <\/em>It starts with the following statement: “The unstoppable force that is ABI has finally met an immovable object-the U.S. Justice Department.”<\/em> Later on, Modern Brewery Age<\/i> comments on their culture\u2019s orientation to litigation.\u00a0 “They are combative, aggressive and they get what they want.”<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0 But perhaps the most important paragraph states: “ABI is run by investment bankers, and it’s never been about market share, it’s always been about the dollars.\u00a0 So the Justice complaints hit them where they live, and they are ready to fight.”<\/em><\/p>\n

I’ve had a number of comments from wholesalers etc. regarding my previous posts on ABI, and as you would expect, they support the party lines.\u00a0 Those who are ABI wholesalers are in support of their actions, likewise, others are not.\u00a0 No surprise there.\u00a0 ABI is now assigning line extensions to wholesalers for brands such as Stella and Beck’s.\u00a0 In some states, extensions have been given to wholesalers who do not have the core brand, violating state laws by assigning brands elsewhere.\u00a0 So the question might be:\u00a0 Are these violations because of ABI wholesalers (Bud) who do not have Stella, and trying to align the brands with them? Or is it the competing wholesalers, who do have Stella, but will not sell it?\u00a0 Or are they just ignoring the state laws?<\/p>\n

I would think that\u00a0any wholesaler, especially the ABI wholesaler, is concerned with the overall direction of ABI and its actions.\u00a0 With ABI continuing to acquire distributorships in certain markets, fighting to keep ownership in some (Chicago), Anchor programs, the Modelo litigation, and, how ABI is now assigning brands, the distributor should be concerned.\u00a0 The ABI\/Modelo transaction will now probably\u00a0happen at a huge initial cost to ABI; the pending sale of the Mexico brewery to STZ and the elimination of the 10-year option; however, the “size of the prize” is the brand, not the brewery.\u00a0 Once this is done, and some time passes, Bill Hackett will retire.\u00a0 Subsequently, an announcement will be made regarding his replacement, an ABI key executive from S. America named in an effort to “align our mutual goals.” Some years later, the CEO of Constellation will announce a “strategic shift,” the focus of which will be on the global wine and spirits segment and a divestment from Crown….to…who else, remember, no one thought AB could be bought.\u00a0 Well, I was born at night but\u00a0it just wasn’t last night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Prior to the 1980’s, Heineken, for all practical purposes, had the import market to itself.\u00a0 They were by far the number #1 import, and had been for years, even though their distribution system was primarily through wine and spirit houses.\u00a0 The growth of Corona,\u00a0which took off\u00a0with the change to the clear bottle, […]<\/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":"","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":false,"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-9w","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590"}],"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=590"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":621,"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590\/revisions\/621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}