Industry News

The president & CEO of Molson Coors has echoed comments made last week by Anheuser-Busch InBev's CEO, claiming that US beer consumers are striving to make sense of the array of options in the craft beer space.

On a conference call following the release yesterday of the company's third-quarter and year-to-date results, Mark Hunter said beer drinkers in the country are having to deal with an "over-supply" of flavours, driven by the explosion of craft beer. US retailers, meanwhile, are starting to simplify their beer offerings.

"I think what you are starting to see," said Hunter, "is probably over-supply of flavours and SKUs... both retailers and consumers are trying to make sense of the plethora of choice." Hunter admitted that the craft segment has been good for the overall beer industry, "because it has driven conversations and interest in beer to probably an all-time high".

James Watt, co-founder of BrewDog, says he would rather "shoot himself in the head" than sell out to "big beer". The imagery is extreme but there is no doubting the passion of the craft brewer from Aberdeen, who this year inserted a clause into the company's rules to prevent a sale to "a monolithic purveyor of bland industrial beer".

It was a defensive move to ward off the attentions of the big brewers. But holdouts like Mr Watt have become rarer after multinational beer companies — including Anheuser-Busch InBev, Molson Coors and Constellation Brands — have spent billions buying up smaller craft brewers in the US and Europe in recent years.