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A couple of years after the expansion of Coors in south Texas, their market share had settled in to around 13%.  Schlitz remained a strong number one.  Coors had a difficult time developing the on premise so when I arrived in Wichita in 1978, I felt I had landed in heaven.  Coors market share was over 60% […]

The last seven of nine Ryder Cup matches between the US and European teams have been won by the Europeans.  The PGA of America selects the captain for each event, historically choosing a captain in their mid, to late 40s, with the thought that they would be familiar with the tour players who were generally younger. […]

For the last several years, the two topics that dominate the beer industry are: why are the domestic light beers losing share and why are crafts growing at warp speed?  In every form of communication including, industry publications, social media, beer conventions, and main stream media, not a day goes by without either one or both […]

My first supervisory job was in the beer division of Julius Schepps.  This was in the early 1970s and Schepps, a wine and spirit house, also represented a number of regional beers including:  Lone Star, Jax, Hamm’s, Colt 45, Champale, Right Time, and Lowenbrau.  Given the tremendous growth of the national beers, Schepps started to downsize […]

During the 70s, Coors Brewing Co. began to market directly to Hispanics.  One of their first actions was to hire golfer Lee Trevino as their celebrity spokesman.  Trevino, who was at the top his game, had an agreement with Coors which required him to participate in six outings annually using a Coors-identified golf bag when […]

Beer Marketer’s Insights just published the annual list of the nine beers Americans no longer drink. What makes this year’s list so interesting is that it has three new brands that were not on the list in 2012. Of the three new brands, the new number one brand is Michelob Light, which has lost almost 70% […]

My first summer on a beer truck, 1969, was also the last year Pearl Beer was the number one selling beer in Texas.  Pearl had been in that top position for the previous 15 years, but their biggest markets were all in south Texas.  That summer, the brewery workers at AB had gone out on […]

Recently published IRI data for Portland, Oregon shows craft beers at a 49% share of market!  Along with crafts, imports are at 11% and ciders at 6% share.  High-end beers are at an amazing 66% share of market!  By the end of 2015, total high-end beers will be well over 70% share.  Obviously, the domestic premium […]

If there was ever a city that could be called an incubator for craft beers, it would be Portland, Oregon.  When I was with Coast Distributors in the late 80s, crafts were at a one percent share.  Now crafts are over 30% share in volume, and over 40% share in dollars.  More than ten years […]

Many of the salesmen I rode with while working on a Coors truck during my college years were Korean War vets, but the majority of the managers were World War II vets.  Likewise, the sales manager at Schepps Distributing during my tenure was a bomber pilot during WWII.  These vets were all professionals and very hard […]