The annual NBWA convention just concluded in Las Vegas. This year represented the 75th year of the organization that started in Chicago in 1938. From those humble beginnings, the NBWA now represents 3,300 beer wholesalers and has become a successful lobbying force in Washington DC for the beer wholesalers.
The first NBWA convention I attended was in the late 1970s, also in Las Vegas. Not surprisingly, the convention was not as well attended then as it is today. Forty years ago, the convention was almost exclusively composed of breweries and a few related companies, predominantly software, equipment, wearables and various p-o-s manufactures all in one room.
Now the trade show takes place in a number of large rooms, with many different vendors, all aspiring to do business within the industry. Products represented at the show included flavored waters, energy drinks, (some with alcohol), crafts, imports, wines, etc. There are many products totally unrelated to the industry.
The show featured not only the trade area, but a multitude of speakers, delivering information on various topics including industry issues; there were morning seminars, and, of course, all the meetings with current vendors. And, of course, the NBWA hosted numerous hospitality events put on by a multitude of vendors. Not long ago, I had 16 invitations to various hospitality parties for just the first day of the convention. These vendors were not potential vendors; they were current vendors we represented most of the 12 states in which Glazer’s sold beer. It made for a very long day.
In California this year, 2,500 SKUs were measured in the grocery channel, however, only a small number, 205 SKUs, 8%, do a whopping 80% of the volume! Crafts represent about 1,100 SKUs at 10%, with 110 SKUs doing 80% of the business! When you drill down to flavors, many distributors have eight to 10 pumpkin beers just for the fall! How many of these does the market really need?
Nationally there are about 8,200 SKUs in US food stores with 52% or 4,426 SKUs representing the crafts! Of the 698 new SKUs this year, again 61% are crafts. The industry is creating 1,000 new SKUs per year which indicates that by the end of next year, there will be over 10,000 SKUs in the US. One wonders how many will be DQ’d by the retailer, wholesaler or brewery?
So the question really is, does the NBWA convention and trade show represent the real needs of today’s wholesaler, or is it after its own financial interest by selling these booths to so many unrelated vendors?
Even, today, when someone approaches an unknown beer wholesaler and asks their profession; the wholesaler will say they are either an AB or MC wholesaler. If they are an Indy wholesaler, more than likely they will state that they are a craft/import beer wholesaler.
The core competency of a beer wholesaler is selling beer, but does 10,000 SKUs, flavored waters or even 10 pumpkin beers help? Just when does enough become enough?
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