| Beverage Wholesaler - December 18, 2017 |
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| Interstate Shipping Laws Tightening |
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Due to lax enforcement and a lack of widespread understanding of the law, for years companies have been skirting the interstate wine shipping laws in many states. Recently, those rules have come to the forefront as industry associations, state legislators and shipping companies have begun taking a closer look at direct-to-consumer sales, which represent a small (but growing) percentage of industry revenue.
Wholesalers are most impacted by whether these laws are enforced, since DTC sales are sometimes used to bypass the three-tier system and cut distributors out of the process. Below is a sample of stories from around the country that provide an update on where the law stands, where it’s being enforced, and where the future is headed.
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| Spiced and Flavored Rums Drive Growth |
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If you’re looking for liveliness and interest in rum these days, it’s probably happening in the flavored and spiced sector of the category.
Rum’s overall woes are well known, and the general category was down once again in 2016. But the subcategory from which growth is coming indicates that many consumers, particularly younger ones not attuned to the much-vaunted cocktail renaissance, still enjoy their spirits via the casual, mixed drink, beachside bar-style drinking that spiced and flavored rums offer.
“Rum is certainly facing some headwinds right now and there are more dynamic categories in spirits. But within rum, spiced is one of the more popular,” says Josh Hayes, Senior Brand Manager for Sailor Jerry. “We’re doing well even though the category has stalled.”
Linda Bethea, vice president of Captain Morgan for Diageo, agrees. “It’s no surprise to anyone in the business that the rum category has been fairly flat the last few years. But Captain Morgan has been growing for the past few years on the strength of the original and Flavor Blast lines. We think consumers are always looking for flavor, and we’ve seen with our recent innovations there is definitely an opportunity to deliver more flavor to them.”
In 2016, rum as an entire category shrank by more than 250,000 cases, or 1.1 percent. It’s hard to tease out separate data for brands that are sold in standard, flavored and spiced iterations, but those known best or exclusively for the latter two showed minor to solid growth. Category leader Bacardi was down one percent, even with ten flavors and Oakheart spiced rum. Meanwhile, Captain Morgan was up 0.4 percent, Malibu up an impressive 2.3 percent, and Cruzan was up 1.7 percent, according to data from the Beverage Information Group’s 2017 Handbook Advance.
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ONE MORE THING
The next issue of Beverage Wholesaler will come out on January 8. Thank you for making our first year so successful, and happy holidays! |
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