Tom Long of Miller Coors made a pretty interesting speech last week at the National Beer Wholesalers Conference in Las Vegas. To sum up his thoughts, the beer industry is slumping. Spirits are up. (To the tune of 1.5% down, to 3.5% up.) Some of the impact is due to the spirits sector advertising more. RE: Capt’n Morgan, DisAronno, Jack Daniels. In an interesting statement Long said – “Beer needs to change, and fast.”
This science geek thinks a little differently. The beer industry is (very) roughly 90% big beer, 10% small beer. We pretty much know Big Beer is experiencing major sales losses. Small Beer is booming. Lump the losses of the 90% with the 10%, of course you are going see an overall loss. Can’t make it much simpler than that.
At the end of the day, Tom Long’s remarks at the conference were positive as were the responses. Maybe when Long said – “Beer needs to change, and fast.” Could be amended to say – “Some beer needs to change, and fast.” [MSNMoney]
