In a recent and much anticipated report, Senior Analyst Francois Sonneville modeled the spot market and actual prices paid among public beer companies in North America, Europe, and China. We discuss his findings and his ideas on how brewers can better control production costs and where future cost pressure may come from. Be sure to download Francois’ report: Beer COGS dashboard Q4 2023 Clients can sign up for research here: Research.Rabobank.com Note: The content and opinions presented...

At this year’s Access LIVE conference in Las Vegas, we sat down with Breakthru Beverage Group’s Head of Digital and E-commerce Mike Boswell for an impromptu conversation on alcohol marketplaces. We explore the relevance and value of marketplaces at different levels of the value chain, discussing Drizly on the consumer-facing side and Provi for a business-to-business perspective.  For more on this topic, be sure to read our latest report: Why Drizly never delivered.   Note: The content and...

Is neo-prohibitionism a threat to the alcohol business? Will GLP-1 agonists decrease alcohol sales? Are soft drinks companies losing interest in their effort to develop alcohol brands? To debate these and other controversial topics, the RaboResearch Beverage team plays one of our favorite games: Buy, Sell, Hold!       Note: The content and opinions presented within this podcast are not intended as investment advice, and the opinions rendered are that of the individuals and not Rabobank or...

As the largest wine and spirits distributor in North America, Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits has a unique perspective on the US alcohol market. Senior leaders David Chaplin (Chief Growth Officer), John Wittig (Chief Commercial Officer), and Alan Wizeman (Chief Digital Officer) share their views on the health of the US alcohol market, consumer trends, distributor inventories, and the fast evolving world of business-to-business e-commerce.     Note: The content and opinions presented...

Economic power duo Jane Foley and Christian Lawrence return to discuss the outlook for a recession, interest rates, inflation, and consumer spending and how these economic trends could impact food and beverage companies as we enter the new year.   Rabobank clients can sign up for our research via this link: research.rabobank.com. Note: The content and opinions presented within this podcast are not intended as investment advice, and the opinions rendered are that of the individuals and...

For the first time in more than a year, the Liquid Assets team gets to do a recording in the same room. They take turns picking news stories that speak to wider trends impacting the beverages industry. Rabobank clients can sign up for our research via this link: Research.Rabobank.com Note: The content and opinions presented within this podcast are not intended as investment advice, and the opinions rendered are that of the individuals and not Rabobank or its affiliates and should not be...

Bourbon has been booming for years, but that growth was preceded by a half century of hardship, hard work, and good luck that laid the groundwork for the soaring category we see today. Heaven Hill’s Max Shapira and Kate Latts lived through the good times and the bad. We tap that experience to understand the winding path that has led American whiskey to its current zenith and what more recent trends could mean for the future of this “distinctively” American spirit. Rabobank clients can...

David Broughton, a journalist and director of research for Sports Business Journal, discusses the history of sports advertising, how it is evolving, and what recent changes to the industry mean for building brands on the back of humanity’s most beloved pastimes.   Rabobank clients can sign up for our research via this link: Research.Rabobank.com   Note: The content and opinions presented within this podcast are not intended as investment advice, and the opinions rendered are that of the...

With one of our favorite guests, consumer foods specialist Maria Castroviejo, and one of our favorite formats (a draft!), we debate the strategies that will drive beverage M&A deals over the next 12 to 18 months.     Rabobank clients can read our report The New Deal Environment by logging in to our website. 

Margie Lehrman, CEO of the American Craft Spirits Association, and Bart Watson, Chief Economist for the Brewers Association, team up to discuss the winds of change blowing through the craft industry. Not long ago, the seas of craft beer and spirits were all smooth sailing as operators expanded into new, undiscovered territory. As costs rise, consumers shrug, and investors start to feel uneasy, many craft operators have been forced to batten down the hatches and rethink their long-term...

Liquid Assets hosts Stephen Rannekleiv and Jim Watson sit down with Rabobank economists Christian Lawrence and Jane Foley to dig beneath the headline consumer data and provide a clearer view on where demand (and the economy) is heading in the second half of 2023.

Steve and Jim invite Liquid Assets listeners to join them in congratulating Bourcard for becoming a father… on Father’s Day. Congrats Buki!!!

There are two major ways that beverage companies are changing their ingredients to fight inflation. Some brands are looking to cut costs by replacing their more expensive ingredients with cheaper ones. Others brands are developing new products or modifying existing products to increase revenues by adding more functional ingredients or making healthier versions of those products. We are joined by John Kelly and Paul Villis from the Kerry Group. They help us better understand what drives these...

As the big get bigger, many new brands and foreign brands are wondering how to get attention in the massive and complicated US distribution landscape? Sara Harmelin, Vice President – Digital & Innovation at Allied Beverage Group, and Michael Bilello, Executive Vice President – Strategic Communications & Marketing at WSWA, are both part of Access Craft, a program from WSWA to help smaller and new-to-market brands navigate the three-tier system and get the most of out their...

We sit down with Danny Wirtz, vice chairman and a fourth-generation family leader at Breakthru Beverage Group, to discuss M&A, the digitalization of distribution, and how brands can work better with distributors in this time of uncertainty. Breakthru has a larger beer business than most other wine and spirits distributors, giving Danny unique insights into why some wine and spirits brands are choosing to work with beer wholesalers. 

Tom Cole (Chairman) and Francis Creighton (President and CEO) help lead Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America (WSWA). We sat down with Tom and Francis at WSWA’s annual conference, Access LIVE, to kick off our series on US distribution. They share their views on industry trends, competition, and their legislative agenda for the year ahead.

To show off the global reach of the RaboResearch Beverages team, Steve and Bourcard sit down with analysts across four different continents, collecting stories about the economy and how it is affecting beverage brands around the world.  Episode breakdown: 1:23 - Jim Watson on the latest US beverage pricing data and why some brands are outperforming the competition.  18:21 - Andrés Padilla & Guilherme Morya on the Brazilian economy and how it is impacting the local coffee market. 31:31...

Against all odds, most big brewers were able to grow their business and expand margins in 2022. Can they do it again in 2023, or will lagging cost pressures and backlash from recent price increases come back to bite them? The authors of Rabobank’s latest Beer Quarterly report share how brewers are working to control costs, boost revenues, and present their outlook on big-brewer balance sheets for the year ahead. Click here to read Rabobank’s latest Beer Quarterly report: “Have Cost...

At Liquid Assets, we take pride in avoiding “how-I-built-this” stories. But once in a while, a brand comes along whose path to success is so unique, so unexpected, that the best and most insightful question you can ask is: “How?” Beatbox Beverages is one of those companies. Cofounders Aimy Steadman (COO) and Brad Shultz (CMO) share the origins of the brand, how they stay connected to young 21+ consumers, how they leverage beer distributors to get more attention and find the right accounts,...

Economist power duo Jane Foley and Christian Lawrence return to discuss the most important economic trends heading into the new year and what a potential recession, persistent inflation, labor shortages, and a cost-of-living crisis for lower-income consumers could mean for the beverage industry. 

In a show packed with passionate debate, fierce competition, and even mutiny, journalist Kate Bernot (Good Beer Hunting, Craft Beer & Brewing magazine) and Brewbound Managing Editor Jess Infante help us process the most important stories from 2022. Kate and Jess also do a bit of a takeover, hosting the second annual Liquid Assets Quiz-of-the-Year. Happy holidays, everyone! Thanks for tuning in and supporting yet another year of the show!

Using recent industry headlines for inspiration, we break down three big questions on the minds of many beverage executives: Could a change in investor mindset brought on by the collapse of cryptocurrencies be good for the beverage business? What new brands and partnerships are working best at big beverage companies? Has the hype surrounding marijuana and CBD finally burned out?

An energy crisis caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine is devastating the European economy. There is a global shortage of diesel, the go-to fuel source for the trains, trucks, and ships that support economic activity around the world. And greenhouse gas emissions are rising as households, governments, and businesses scramble for affordable, yet dirtier, sources of energy. Rabobank’s energy strategist Joe DeLaura and head of FX strategy Jane Foley join us to explain how we arrived at this...

E-commerce and digital marketing are blurring the lines between sales and marketing, but sales and marketing teams don’t always get along. Carolyn Brown, Head of Commerce Marketing at AB InBev, and Rebecca Christiansen, AB InBev’s Director of eCommerce, see this as an opportunity to help their sales and marketing teams better understand each other and increase collaboration, setting up the world’s largest brewer for success in the digital age.