Innholdsfortegnelse for May 1, 2020 i Shanken's Impact Newsletter

DESPITE THE CHALLENGES FACING THE imported wine market—including tariffs and the outbreak of Covid-19—a number of brands that have built a strong following among U.S. consumers continue to post notable gains. Overall, bottled table wine imports in the U.S. declined slightly to 76.8 million nine-liter cases last year on a 630,000-case decrease, down from 2017’s high of just over 79 million cases, according to Impact Databank. The value of imported table wine to the U.S. slipped 1.7% to about $4.3 billion, roughly on par with 2017 values. The last quarter of 2019, however, saw significant upheaval for most European imports as the U.S. imposed a 25% tariff on wines at less than 14% abv from France, Spain, Germany, and the U.K. amid a longrunning trade dispute. With a vast swath…

CALIFORNIA WINEMAKERS HAVE BEEN making strides in the affordable luxury segment retailing at the $15-and-above tier, an area that appears ripe for further progress even amid the difficult conditions. Last year, U.S. volumes of California wine retailing at $15 and over a 750-ml. bottle hit 11.13 million cases, up from just 7.1 million cases in 2014, according to Impact Databank. Among the brands bringing attention to the Central Coast is Josh Cellars, which launched a higher-end Reserve tier in 2017. “The Reserve lineup has been extremely successful, in part because it offers our core consumers the opportunity to trade up and explore California in-depth,” says Tom Steffanci, president at brand owner Deutsch Family Wine & Spirits. Overall, Josh Cellars has more than doubled in size to nearly 3.2 million cases…

TREASURY WINE ESTATES HAS UNveiled a plan to potentially spin off its Penfolds business into a separate company, with the goal of unlocking the luxury brand’s potential while accelerating the premiumization of the rest of the business. Treasury CEO Michael Clarke noted, “Penfolds accounts for approximately 10% of our volume, but well over half of our earnings, with unique resources and a differentiated execution focus compared to the remainder of our business. A potential demerger would enhance New TWE’s and Penfolds’ ability to pursue their own strategic priorities and deliver a stronger long-term growth profile.” Penfolds could be worth up to A$10 billion ($6.2b) as a separate company, according to some analysts, the Australian Financial Review reported. According to Impact Databank, Penfolds was up 6.4% to 70,000 cases in the…

LESTER EBER, LONG-TIME LEADER OF New York state distributor Eber Brothers Wine & Liquor Corp., passed away April 5 of complications from Covid-19. Eber joined his family’s Rochester, New York-based wine and spirits distribution company after graduating from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He went on to head up Eber Brothers for many decades until the company was sold to Southern Wine & Spirits in 2007. Eber stayed on at Southern and later Southern Glazer’s, and also retained ownership of the Eber family’s Connecticut distributor, Slocum & Sons.…

THE WINE SPECTATOR SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATION HAS ANNOUNCED A CONtribution of $250,000 to World Central Kitchen (WCK), the charitable organization led by chef Jose Andres. “Jose Andres is world famous for his enormous charity efforts devoted to feeding people in need,” said Marvin R. Shanken, editor and publisher of Wine Spectator. “This donation is intended to help feed many of the Americans who have lost jobs due to Covid-19, including restaurant workers, as well as front-line health care workers and other vulnerable groups.” WCK was founded in 2010 and has served more than 16 million meals globally. With a #ChefsForAmerica effort addressing the fallout from Covid-19, the charity has served nearly 1.5 million meals across the country. #ChefsForAmerica is active in more than 85 cities including Little Rock, Los Angeles, Miami,…

Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court granted Total Wine & More a big win when it struck down Tennessee’s residency requirement for beverage alcohol licensing. But the Court has declined to take up Total Wine’s latest challenge to state alcohol laws, in which the retailer took aim at Connecticut’s minimum pricing rules. The Supreme Court said it would let stand last year’s Second Circuit court ruling in favor of Connecticut’s minimum pricing system, which said the state regulations are not preempted by federal anti-trust laws. Under Connecticut’s law, drinks wholesalers must post their prices in advance so competing wholesalers can match them, hold those prices for a month, and may not offer volume discounts to retailers. Total says the provisions keep prices artificially high in the state.…

WITH DRINKS MARKETERS FACING A NUMBER OF unprecedented challenges from Covid-19 to tariffs, the beverage alcohol industry’s collective mettle is being put to the test. But if early indications hold true, the business could emerge on the other side of these trials stronger than ever. To take just one example, wine importers specializing in upscale bottlings have seen the on-premise market—their bread-and-butter—disappear virtually overnight amid the pandemic. While the on-premise will re-emerge eventually, in the meantime import players have displayed remarkable agility in shifting resources to the off-premise, where retailers are eagerly buying up wines that were previously unavailable to them. Similarly, wineries and distilleries that are heavily reliant on visitors and tasting room sales have been scrambling to come up with new revenue streams and ways of connecting with…

THE WORLD’S LARGEST SPIRITS MARketer has warned that it’s seeing “a significant impact” on its performance due to widespread containment measures implemented in March. With the crisis disrupting on-trade markets around the world, Diageo withdrew its guidance for its fiscal year ending in June, saying it’s “not in a position to accurately assess the impact of this on our future financial performance.” In late February, the company said it was expecting negative impacts on net sales and operating profit in its fiscal year ending in June to be in the range of £225 million-£325 million ($291m-$420m) and £140 million-£ 200 million ($181m-$259m), respectively. Across its business, Diageo says it’s tracking changes in consumer behavior due to the on-trade closures, including in the U.S., where the on-premise accounts for about 20%…

E-COMMERCE RETAILER WINE.COM said demand in March more than doubled from the year-earlier period, and was accelerating to three times the year-earlier pace in the early days of April. “We’re selling and shipping over $1 million (50,000 bottles) of wine a day,” said Wine.com CEO Rich Bergsund. “New customers are trying us at five times our normal pace, and are joining StewardShip (the company’s annual free shipping membership program) at three times the normal pace.” For March, Bergsund said Wine.com customers bought a total of 21,000 different types of wines and 1,700 spirits on the company’s platform, choosing “bottles from all over the world—not just what they would normally buy at their grocery or liquor store.” Wine.com has also hired over 300 new people in six states to keep pace…