Constellation Brands to Acquire Ballast Point Brewing & Spirits

was a great way to build up the sale price

 

let's go back to what we used to call it and stick to that shit.. MICRO

 

Where you choose to spend your money is completely your own prerogative. However, the people that are saying that they're unwilling to support Ballast anymore because they don't want to support big business are fucking liars. You're posting on the internet, and unless you're doing it from a library you're supporting big business. You have a car? Big business. Gasoline? Big business.

I know people at Ballast personally, and they work their fucking asses off to make a product that is absolutely fantastic. They're going to continue to do that. They were offered an obscene amount of money and this thread has clearly illustrated that they're making something like 20 times their worth. I can't even begin to lie and say that I have the fiber to take a stand and turn down THAT amount of money.

Does it hurt a little? Yeah, sure it does. There's still a part of me that has the "us against them" mentality. I clearly remember the days of going out of my way to get craft beer. Now it's outside my door any time I want. The thing is though that changing the entire culture of the United States was always an end goal. Make craft beer available to everyone. Now that craft is readily available it doesn't surprise me one iota that people clamor over it. People like to buy quality products.

There's a legitimate side to not wanting big business to take over craft beer. It's a scary thought in some ways, but I've been known to buy a sixer at 7-11, so I can't lie to myself and say I actually have morals.

 

That's about right then. They got to keep their future revenue and profits via IPO, now they don't.

 

I'm gonna drink some of the better, fresher, less expensive local small batch beer we have here to celebrate. I recommend everyone do the same.

 

The value is in having a super hot, growing, vast, recognizable, quality brand under their umbrella. While the overseas idea is great, and will become very important (as Tony @ Lagunitas has noted), I think having a true "craft" brand under their umbrella is the main reasoning here.

 

I work for ABInBev most of that stock increase is due to business decisions such as consolidating departments and increasing workloads for employees threefold. It's not from sales increasing.

 

Damn great job ballast point. If anyone is critical of this decision should look in the mirror everyone would take that money. I think it is a win for craft beer that a company got a billion dollars.

 

my biggest concern is distribution. As long as it doesn't change shelf space for the smaller brewers.

 

Amen, I drank my last Victory at Sea last night.

 

Waiting for someone photoshop a clear Sculpin bottle with Corona font.... that will brighten my day.

 

This is a blowhard posting imo. The calls to hypocrisy are so simplistic in something that's a bit more nuanced. Consumers don't make their decisions in vacuums, especially people who spend this much time researching keeping up with beers. When we go to make a decision to purchase something, it has to be analyzed in relation to other readily available options in a similar price point and with a similar effort in attaining those goods and services. We don't have a mom and pop ISP that's simple and easy to sign up with, we don't have car manufacturers or oil refineries either, so we're stuck with a shitty choice.

With beer though? Shit, I can think of dozens of beers I can buy today that aren't made by BP and while many of us used to love them 10 years ago, and may of us still do, it's quite easy to move even further from reaching for their product. I for example haven't ordered their beer apart from maybe 2 grunions in the past 3 years, precisely because my beer purchasing is generally done at a place with options, and I've had more value from the other options.

For the people who aren't understanding why some of us resist large businesses I have a couple of key points to consider. Many of us aren't hippies with ethical high-horse logic, we actually have reasons.

- we care about small production (i drink a lot of wine too and purposely stick to small case yields) because as all you BAs know smaller producers are able to focus on quality to a much higher level, scaling up always means a different product as well as an incentive to purchase lower cost ingredients.

- many of us are environmentally and community minded and don't just talk about seeking out local options, we actually do prefer them if given the choice of a decent one, while beers brewed by BP are still locally made, employing local people, profits are aggregated and sent off to another state or country, which has local and state revenue implications

- products made by large, wall street traded companies are possible to create really well, but the nature of incentives at that level is such that basically all will be forced to either raise revenue side (sales/pricing) or cut expense cost (ingredient, occupancy, staffing etc cost) or BOTH.

- drinking shit that's at 7/11 and the gas station is fine in a pinch but it's far from cool and many BAs are without even knowing it are drawn to small craft beers because of the counter-culture aspect.

So we have better options available to us generally many of us who give a shit about such things go for other options. You're free to choose your own values and beers obviously.

 

I would like to see that happen as well but I suspect that Constellation bought out Ballast Point since it generated a lot of profit.

Cheers!

 

I think the beauty of this is that we get to pick and choose where we can be picky with our morals. CRAFT beer was that one segment where, for me anyway, I felt connected to the establishment brewing it. I knew that every pint I purchased would result in sales that would build their brand. I have seen many local breweries grow in the past 6 years alone. I felt proud. Every four or six pack I bought, I saw that moving the brewery forward. I was proud to introduce the beer to friends and call it local.

I could see how many would feel that end goal of being bought out would be considered a success. But for others, we see it differently. BP can now expand villy nilly with the Constellation backing. I don't feel there will be that connection when buying a sixer of their sculpin anymore. Where is my money going?

I guess I bought or got sold into that craft concept long ago. I realize now that many of these places I love have many founders and business partners/investors, which are much like the Big business brass. Some founders get bought out before they make stupid decisions. Some founders aren't even local businessmen. Others still have multiple investors. For the most part, I guess we set ourselves to believe a place is truly local because it looks like it. 4-10 silent partners vs. being owned by a GIANT is where most seem to draw that line. Local is still local until the real big $$$ is involved. That could be viewed as hypocrisy. But it's that picking and choosing we tend to do.
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Who are they working their asses off for now? I don't know if itll change when you now know every sweat and tear you put into a product does not help the BP end game. No more growth or profits for your bosses.

 

ABInbev consolidates Grupo Modelo financials which do not include sales to the US. Those sales are reported under Constellation Brands. Performance of the Modelo brands in the US have no direct impact on Modelo/ABInbev's financials. Hell, Constellation even bought the bottling producer. The DOJ's purpose in their litigation was to make sure Modelo sales in the US had no financial impact on ABInbev. The only impact my simple brain can imagine is US sales creating intangible brand value to Modelo/ABInbev but that’s a far cry from “tied at the hip” and “control.”

 

Of course it matters. We vote with our dollars. We can vote to support a local business that still needs to grow to survive and is 100% focused on beer quality first rather than marketing or sales strategies. Or you can vote to do business with a billion dollar company....

 

it's already hard enough for smaller breweries to get the hop varietals the current IPA market craves. All this consolidation at the top, featuring brewers who make hugely hoppy IPAs as their flagships...the acquirers aren't gonna be looking to DECREASE their hop contracts, that's for damn sure. How a 1000 bbl a year brewer is gonna get any Citra or Mosaic or Galaxy or Amarillo is already fucking beyond me. What I'm starting to wonder is how a 5000 or 10,000 bbl a year brewer is going to be able to keep doing it.

 

From a NBC7SD article, of the 115 breweries operating around SD, 85 have opened in the last 5 years with 40 more in the planning stages. Locals to the area can definitely pinpoint their likes and dislikes rather easily. SEC filings mentioned unsustainable growth as a potential con for BP. With only 38% growth in the SD area, compared to double that in new markets, maybe they just don't care about local any more. And now with todays news, obviously they do not care

 

A bit of a naive view, no? Not many examples of breweries succeeding without marketing. You can't sit around brewing beer and hope that people will show up. I don't think it's a one or the other issue when it comes to marketing and beer quality.

 

i mean, isn't this roughly what Lagunitas/Heinekin deal valued Lagunitas at?

EDIT: looks like what Heinekin paid has not been disclosed, it was just "industry analylists" who were throwing the $1B number around.