The Big 3: Autos & Beer

The era of the “Big 3” (aka “BMC” by some) in the US brewing industry lasted less than 2 decades – roughly 1990-2007. In 1990, Coors finally passed Stroh for the permanent #3 spot and, in 2007, the parent companies of Miller and Coors, SABMiller and MolsonCoors, merged their two US divisions into MillerCoors and the US entered the “Big 2” era.

Before that, going back only to the mid-70’s (an easy starting point - the beginnings of the “Craft Era”) the US brewing industry was dominated by a “Big 5” – AB, Schlitz, Pabst, Miller and Coors – all brewing over 10 million barrels a year and all, save Coors, nationally distributed. In '76, the "Big 5" brewed 63% of US beer. That was in the midst of the Beer Wars, with Miller on the rise (thanks to the incredible popularity of Lite Beer from Miller and parent company Philip Morris’ cash and promotional know-how) and long-time #2, Schlitz, about to to crash.

Only a few years later, the “Big 5” had become the “Big 6” – Heileman entered the group to become the sixth big national brewery by the late ‘70’s when they purchased Carling-National, increasing their yearly barrelage by over 50% (7m bbl. in ’78 to 11m bbl in ’79 post-C-N) and gained a West Coast foothold by buying Rainier. And by the early 80’s Stroh entered the group by buying first Schaefer and then the remnants of Schlitz- its brands (including Old Milwaukee - which a decade later would be a Top Ten US brand and Stroh’s best selling) and most of its chain of coast to coast breweries.

Go back even further to the late '50's and the 25th anniversary of Repeal, today's "Big 2" accounted for a mere 6% of US beer production of 173.5 million barrels - A-B [#1 @6.9m bbl] - Miller [#9 2.3m] - Coors [#18 - 1.4 m bbl]. The current beer geek mythology that "BMC" has dominated the US industry "since Repeal" or WWII or even "the '60's" is clearly just that.

Market share of the current "Big Two" today is now confused by the fact that both companies' totals usually are made up of both their domestic production and the imported brands of their parent companies. The best historic market share numbers available are for their market share of domestic production only (not including imports, which in this period accorded for 10-13% of the total market).

In 1990 (their first year as the "Big 3"), "BMC" accounted for 79% of the beer brewed in the US. In 1995 it was 82% and by 2000 (after the collapse of Stroh/Heileman) it was 88%. Today, subtract the import totals and "BMC" still accounts for well over 80% of the domestic beer sold, but, again, their totals now contain InBev, SABMiller and Molson imports brands which probably still make up a very small percentage of their numbers, given the fact that the best selling one, Stella Artois, is the only "BMC" import brand even close to 1m bbl/yr in the US.
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Their "peak" seems to have been only a few years ago, around the middle of the 2000's- since then, the shrinking of the overall beer market along with "BMC" shares dropping down even as they added imports and as "craft's" increases, muddy the comparisons.

 

Just want to say as an employee of one of the Big 3 Automakers this thread caught my attention. It's interesting to read other peoples opinions and comparisons. Keep this thread going.