With Australia looking to the US for beer style trends, will the latest business trend – breweries putting up the For Sale sign – also take hold here? Kate Bernot of Good Beer Hunting’s Sightlines looks into what’s driving the growing move towards breweries looking to sell in the US, and whether buyers are there…
As consumers face higher costs for nearly everything they buy, there have been reports of shoppers trading down to cheaper brands in different food and beverage categories, including beer. But not all beer makers are seeing a wholesale switch to economy brands.
Breweries have already been facing higher costs for raw materials like aluminum and barley as a result of inflation. Craft breweries across America have been on the front lines of businesses facing higher material costs because of inflation. Now, many are confronting a shortage of a key ingredient: carbon dioxide, the gas that gives beer its crisp, effervescent taste. And one brewer has already said it plans to shut down a key manufacturing plant and lay off workers as a result.
On July 13, the top story on The New York Times’ homepage wasn’t about the war in Ukraine, the January 6 Committee hearings, or President Biden’s diplomatic trip to the Middle East. It’s about inflation, which rose to 9.1% in June, its highest rate since 1981.
America’s beer industry supports more than two million jobs, provides more than $102 billion in wages and benefits, and contributes more than $331 billion to the U.S. economy. Today our nation’s brewers, beer importers and independent beer distributors not only provide Americans with their favorite alcoholic beverage, but they continue to be a cornerstone to America’s economy. The Beer Serves America report is a comprehensive study of the number of American jobs the beer industry supports, from farmers and brewers and beer importers to beer distributors and servers at your favorite bars and restaurants.
Ball Corp (BLL)., one of the world’s largest suppliers of aluminum cans, is sending shockwaves throughout the craft beer world after lifting the minimum number of cans certain producers must order and saying it will raise prices.