Stroh takes 17% 1Q hit in beer price war. (Stroh Brewery Co's first quarter 1998 sales)

Crain's Detroit Business, May, 1998 by Serwach, Joseph

The Stroh Brewery Co. took the biggest first-quarter hit of any major brewer in the industry's ongoing price war, with sales volumes dropping 17 percent. The Detroit-based brewer, the nation's fourth largest, sold 3.18 million barrels of beer during the first three months of 1998, down from 3.83 million barrels sold during the same time in 1997, company executives confirmed last week.

"A drop of 8, 9 or 10 percent is pretty routine in this industry but I've never seen anything this large," said Benj Steinman, editor of West Nyack, N.Y.-based Beer Marketer's Insights. "Stroh products were already low priced. The big guys have cut prices to go for the below-premium market where Stroh had most of its sales. It squeezes Stroh." Chris Sortwell, Stroh CFO and executive...