Tapping specialty brews for Yule '96 - beer - Food Merchandising

Discount Store News, Oct 7, 1996

It will soon begin to look a lot like Christmas along drug and discount store beer aisles as brewers roll out their annual Holiday promotions and special products.

Although the primary beer selling season is from Memorial Day until Labor Day, retailers have been able to turn the Christmas holidays into the second-largest sales period by erecting special displays or participating in Holiday promotional programs.

"These events have helped make it a very important season," said Tim Amundson, brand manager at Barton Beers, which markets Corona west of the Mississippi.

Jeff Schouten, Miller's category management director, added, "Beer can bring traffic to your stores. Customers respond to specific brands and displays."

The Holiday period, which kicks off during Thanksgiving, is also lucrative for the $52 billion beer category because it is a time when people tend to treat themselves, or friends, and trade up to more expensive beers. These are often from craft breweries or special brews that larger companies create for Christmas.

"The holidays are when specialty brews really sell and many retailers who don't stock them year-round add them," said Dick Leinenkugel of Leinenkugel Breweries, a Miller subsidiary.

And, in general, people are buying better beers, a trend that helped push beer prices up 3% since January. Consumers have shown that they don't mind paying extra for a specialty beer - that's given all breweries an open window to hike prices. The average domestic six-pack price is now $3.14; an imported or specialty six-pack costs $5.50. Specialty beer sales rose 31.7% last year, controlling a 2.3% share of the business, according to Beverage Aisle, a monitor of industry trends.

The Holiday cheer fostered by the Yule season leads many breweries to promote fundraising events. Coors, for example, has a campaign to raise money for the John Wayne Cancer Center in California, where patrons make donations at the point-of-sale that Coors matches.

Miller will repeat past year's tie-in with United Cerebral Palsy. Shoppers can make a donation at participating retail outlets. Miller makes donations based on retailers, sales for outlets that adorn their stores with its decorations.

Retailers like the in-store activity fostered by the fundraising activities and the store displays. "We have special decorations for Christmas fragrances, why not beverages," said Gerald Heller, chairman of Tulsa, Okla.-based May's Drug.

Rite Aid was among the chains decking the halls last Christmas. Based on Holiday promotions staged with Coors last year, Rite Aid's market manager Ralph Kinder reported a 53% jump in sales of Coors in the Christmas period for 1995 vs 1994. Rite Aid also extended its beer selection in newly remodeled stores to provide more convenience foods and beverages.

Harco Drug in Tuscaloosa, Ala., is expanding specialty beers by devoting space in an 8-ft. cooler in five stores as a test through Christmas.

Walgreen Co. will be giving more space to Holiday beer presentations this Christmas to take advantage of the special brews marketers are unleashing, a company spokesman confirmed for FM. "These are beers you can only get at Christmas, so we like to have them," the spokesman said.

Coors will have its special Winterfest brew - the 11th year of the special beer. It will follow a Halloween brand called Blue Moon Pumpkin ale that will kick off the Holiday season.

Miller will ship a special Lowenbrau brew for Holiday. For four years now, Leinenkugel has also concocted a special Holiday beer. This year, the special dark roasted barley will be available in November. According to Leinenkugel, the brew builds incremental sales because customers know the can only buy it during the Holidays.

Beyond the special brews, retailers are anxious to set up their stores with special signs and banners. Each brewer devises its own theme - hoping to outshine the competition. Miller's campaign this year is called Home for the Holidays and all signs will correspond to a television spot.

Barton will roll out a Palm Tree with ornaments and Corona beer merchandised under the palm tree, Amundson said.

Leinenkugel said that his company will try its first gift pack this year to tap into interest in giving beer as a present. The gift pack is called the Leinie Lodge Holiday sampler and consists of 12 bottles of four different brews. "The gift business is a big part of sales that we were missing," he said. To date, Sam's Club has already indicated interest in stocking the gift packs for Yule 1996.

Leinenkugel added, "It is giving us distribution outside our local market," The brand is primarily distributed in the Midwest.

Although market leader Anheuser-Busch, with a 44% share, did not have its Holiday plans ready for release at press time, the company said that it has plans behind some of its new entries. A-B has been aggressive in expanding its scope of products.

There are nine specialty brews and four imports, which will all have some Christmas promotions. Special promotions will support such A-B brands as Elk Mountain Hop Farm, Red Wolf and Michelob Amber bock.