Liquid Assets: A Beverage Industry Podcast

In this episode, we discuss all the ways a beverage firm can diversify its business and the consequences when things go wrong. Whether it is geographical expansion, vertical integration, moving into adjacent categories, or route to market, we debate the merits, downsides, a...

What happens when you move a production plant from Europe to the United States or switch from Florida oranges to Brazilian oranges? Does your product still taste the same? Has technology made it possible to replace 50% of the sugar in a beverage with zero-calorie sweetener and avoid a nasty aftertaste? John Kelly and Paul Villis from Kerr...

It’s not a fun time to work in the alcohol business. Demand is down in almost every segment and in almost every geography. Costs are rising. And most every category is in some state of oversupply. How on earth did we get here? 

Erica Duecy and Scott Rosenbaum, hosts of the Business of Drinks podcast, join the RaboResearch team to debate what is driving the recent declines in the alcohol industry using our favorite debate format: a...

Young people are drinking less, but virtually all those declines are driven by men. If they do consume alcohol, men drink twice as much as women. In this episode, we speculate on what could be changing in the culture and in the lives of young men that is pushing them awa...

Economics power duo Jane Foley and Christian Lawrence return to give context to the first 100 days of the Trump administration, its impact on global economics, and the long-term impact of the US' changing rela...

In 2024, wine production far outstripped demand. Glenn Proctor of Ciatti and Jeff Bitter of Allied Grape Growers help us understand the unique challenges of the current crisis and how it is shaping the future of the wine business in the US and beyond. 

The RaboResearch team discusses the implications of Brown-Forman and Tito's Handmade Vodka moving to a beer distributor in California. Do wine and spirits wholesalers need to change, or will change erode their competitive advantage? Will the beer guys buy wine and...

In this episode, we review the latest earnings results from the spirits industry (Diageo, Pernod Ricard, Brown-Forman, Campari, Rémy Cointreau, Becle, and MGP Ingredients). Alongside individual company results, we discuss the impacts of declining sales in the US, the surprising health of the European market, t...

As the first quarter comes to a close, we look back at the results from the largest global beer companies (Heineken, Carlsberg, AB InBev, Molson Coors, Constellation Brands, Royal Unibrew) and what they tell us about the health of the beer industry in the US, Europe, and the rest of the world. Later in the epi...

For distributors, managing and verifying execution and incentive programs is a complicated task. For brands, it can feel impossible. In this episode, we speak to Cory Knopp from GoSpotCheck by FORM to discuss how distributors, brands, and retailers are using their photo-based technology to bring data and transparency to one of the most hard-to-measure and burdensome parts of th...

Jenda is a US-based tech company that uses retailer website data to offer real-time updates on out-of-stocks, competitive set, and pricing at an outlet level. Jenda’s Amanda Wolff and Harry Shulman share how they are helping brands and distributors solve some of the industry’s most persistent and frustrating problems. This is the third of four episodes recorded on-site at Access ...

Craig Letton and his company, Hyble, spent a decade refining the art of creating menus and point-of-sale materials across Europe. As his business expands across the US, Craig shares how Hyble is modernizing the production and design of point-of-sale materials and explains why so many of the strategies and tech...

We caught up with Francis Creighton, President and CEO of WSWA, to get their take on Trump tariffs, how the industry should react to the growing pressure from public health organizations, and a range of other topics including taxes, cannabis, and a fun little anecdote involving Breaking Bad actor, Bryan Cranst...

Over the last 25 years, distribution contracts in the US have shifted from handshake agreements to carefully negotiated legal documents. What do these contracts contain? As a brand, what is negotiable, what can you leverage to get a better deal, and what aspects of your business should never be compromised? Ed...

Economics power duo Jane Foley and Christian Lawrence return to discuss the outlook for economic growth and the potential impact of tariffs and the Trump presidency in 2025.

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In a show packed with passion, Kate Bernot and Bryan Roth of Sightlines and hosts of The Gist by Sightlines podcast help us identify the year’s most important stories from the world of beer. Things then turn competitive as we go head-to-head in our third annual Quiz of the Year. Will our guests remember how much alcohol a hamster can drink ...

They sold skateboards colored with paint containing Tony Hawk’s actual blood. They bought a Superbowl ad and hired a witch to attend and influence the outcome of the game. They auctioned off a seven-foot, casket-shaped Yeti cooler that sold for USD 68,000. However you might feel about these stunts, the folks at Liquid Death know how to get attention. On this episode, the compa...

In this episode, the research team gets to the bottom of the biggest mystery confounding brands, investors, retailers, and distributors in 2024: Is the recent drop in US alcohol sales a short-term blip or the start of a more long-lived, structural decline? 

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Note: The content and opinions presented within this podcast are not intended as investment advice, and the opi...

Consolidation has transformed the world of wine and spirits distribution in the US. While everyone knows that consolidation happened, far fewer people understand the trends that pushed a few US wholesalers to achieve scale. Dave Lane and Tracy Aldworth, senior leaders from Republic National Distributing Company, discuss the drivers behind the structural changes to the middle tier and how their company is responding to remain compet...