![]() The ones they do own will only be carrying their own “craft” beers and after buying up five distributors last year alone, it can be deduced that we will continue to see that number grow in the future. Furthermore, this is talking about the 500 beer distributors they don’t own. ![]() This is a lot of money to many of these smaller distributors and it makes it very hard for independent craft beer breweries to play on an even playing field with Big Beer. “Distributors whose sales volumes are 95% made up of AB InBev brands would be eligible to have the brewer cover as much as half of their contractual marketing support for those brands, which includes retail promotion and display costs.”įurthermore, if their sales volume is 98% AB InBev brands, they are eligible for up to $1.5 million and the company estimates that most distributors who participate in the program will receive annual benefits of approximately $200,000. That’s right, Budweiser offers what is called an incentive program to the network of distributors it works with. According to the Wall Street Journal, We have all these different local, craft beers for you to choose from.” Whether or not AB InBev engages in the illegal but rampant, pay-to-play schemes that infect the beer industry is moot because they have figured out their own, legal, way to offer pay-to play benefits to distributors they work with. When a beer buyer (bar, store etc) tells AB InBev that they want to offer craft beers, AB InBev can now say, “No problem. distributors, therefore having a high degree of control over the output of beer onto the market. It’s small potatoes to worry about whether Devil’s Backbone will continue to brew their beer to their high standards when if the current trajectory of AB InBev’s distribution model continues, they will likely own or be affiliated with a majority of U.S. This is what people should be worried about. distributors in all of the top craft beer sectors (CO, CA, OR, NY) and is aligned with 500 other independent distributors. The real issue is that AB InBev owns more than 17 U.S. There is always a change in the beer when the brewing is moved from one system to another (say smaller to bigger), but we have faith in the good brewers of these brands that they will be able to adjust their recipes and continue making great beer. We aren’t that worried about whether Devil’s Backbone, Ballast Point or any other breweries that sold recently will go down in quality. ![]() All of the craft breweries bought out by bigger beer companies fiercely defend the quality of their beer after the buy-outs. Soothing people’s “worries” that the craft beer they love will still be the same delicious high-quality brew is a straw man argument in many ways. However, this should not be people’s main concern. This statement is meant to put craft drinkers’ minds at ease about the quality of the beer unchanging once a big company buys them out. “The existing management team plans to stay on board for many years, while continuing to innovate and bring locally crafted Virginia beer to the nation.” In all of the press for this recent sale, the owner of Devil’s Backbone i s quoted as saying, This might be good for the individual breweries who are swallowed up by these global corporations in terms of their opportunity for larger distribution and brewery expansions, but how does it impact to the craft beer industry as a whole? They have decided that they can’t beat craft beer, so they might as well join the movement. While unsurprising, the sale once again shines a spotlight on how Big Beer is dealing with the stagnant sales of beer overall when compared with the enormous growth in the craft beer sector. This is hardly a surprising move for the beer giant, as it just follows their recent model of expanding their craft beer portfolio by buying up already successful craft breweries. It was announced earlier this week that Virginia based brewery, Devil’s Backbone Brewing Co., was bought by Anheuser-Busch for an undisclosed amount.
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