The Wall Street Journal just posted an article in which they speak with the CEO of MillerLite Coors, Tom Long about how they are going to battle the head winds that they are facing as large brewers.
Here are some excerpts:
MillerCoors LLC Chief Executive Tom Long has had a lot to keep him occupied since he took the reins of the second-largest U.S brewer this June.
U.S. beer industry volumes have slipped for a third straight year as consumers shift to wine and liquor. Small craft brewers also are luring drinkers away from MillerCoors andAnheuser-Busch InBev NV, which together still control nearly 80% of the domestic beer market.
Admitting the fact that most Craft Beer lovers know, Craft Breweries are pulling drinkers away from mass produced light lagers.
WSJ: How do you get Miller to grow again?Mr. Long: We're going to our distributors in March with new advertising, new packaging and to the extent we tweak the [brand] positioning, we'll show that as well.There's a new Miller Lite can coming out in the late spring. It's a taste-flow can that allows consumers to put a second opening in the can and the smooth flow rate increases dramatically. Young people really like it.WSJ: The marketing pitch for Miller Lite has long focused on taste. Are you still comfortable with that?Mr. Long: It certainly needs to be tweaked. To be credible you have to frame [the marketing] in the context of light beer. In the light arena, it would be pretty easy to say taste is more important than ever because the craft explosion has waked the taste buds of drinkers.
I think it's incredible that they know that the taste (or lack thereof) is a reason that their drinkers have left them but still, as part of their plans they are developing their cans and not their beer.
Long then delves into what we all know they've been doing. Taking out small companies and competitors and developing their own version of "Craft Beer."
WSJ: Small craft beers also have been taking share from Anheuser-Busch and MillerCoors. What's your strategy with respect to craft?
Mr. Long: We're a big player in craft. The single-biggest brand in craft is Blue Moon, which is ours. The fourth-biggest brand in craft is [our brand] Leinenkugel's. At [craft business unit] Tenth and Blake, the plan is to grow about 60% over the next three years.If we can play really hard in the fastest sector right now, which is craft, which we are doing, and we can do well with Miller Lite, Coors Light and Miller 64, then our company will do quite well.WSJ: You recently bought a minority stake in Terrapin, a small brewery in Georgia. Besides money, what can you offer small brewers? Are you going to buy more of them?Mr. Long: We can help them get distribution faster. We bring an enormous amount of assets in brewing processes, technology, procurement and back office that small companies don't have.We're in dialogue with lots of companies. Those things have to work just right for them and have to be comfortable for everyone.
If Craft Beer drinkers had any doubt about how aggressive the BMC's were gunning after them, this should remove all of that. They are gunning for the small breweries and will stop at nothing to suck them up or eliminate them.
Article can be found here: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203733304577103032622472476.html
