Liquid Assets: A Beverage Industry Podcast
Rabobank’s global beverage team offers insights, analysis, and a bit of entertainment for your morning commute. Liquid Assets will help you tackle the latest trends, introduce you to industry leaders, and prepare you for what’s next in the beverage world. Please read our disclaimer here: https://research.rabobank.com/far/en/footer/disclaimer.html
Episodes
We look back at the results from the first half of 2025 and check in on the performances of the world’s largest global beer companies (Heineken, Carlsberg, AB InBev, Molson Coors, Constellation Brands, and Royal Unibrew). We also look at three major themes affecting the be...
Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits is the largest alcohol wholesaler in the United States. We caught up with Mark Chaplin, John Wittig, and David Chaplin, three of Sourthern’s senior executives, to discuss the toughest issues facing alcohol distribution in 2025 and increasing pressure to become a total beverage distributor.
Note: This episode was recorded only a few days prior to Southern’s acquisition of AB InBev’s wholly owned New...
With tariffs, falling demand, and an unfavorable exchange rate, it can feel as though the cosmos are conspiring to make life hard for US importers. However, many import brands and bulk products remain very competitive in the US market. In this episode, we discuss how importers are adjusting to survive and if not thrive in the current operating environment. This is episode two from our discussion with Ryan O’Hara, CEO of MHW, and Se...
Winning in the US market is the holy grail for many brands around the world, but how do you get started? What type of importer should you use, what should you expect from them, and what should you be prepared to bring to the table? What gets an importer excited to support y...
It seems unthinkable that a simple legal loophole for hemp would lead to the de facto legalization of marijuana edibles in the United States, but here we are. Intoxicating hemp products are everywhere, and everyone seems to be excited about them. But the story of hemp-derived THC's rise and the greatest threat to its future are inexorably linked to its legal status. In this episode, we speak to two legal experts, Marc Hauser and Re...
Caroline Levy and Carol Reber know a lot about being on a board. Between them, they sit on the board of six different companies that include Celsius Holdings, Far Niente Wine Estates, Health-Ade, Arterra Wines Canada, Rack & Riddle, and Athletic Brewing Company. On today’s episode, Read more
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...
Popular Podcasts
My Favorite Murder is a true crime comedy podcast hosted by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. Each week, Karen and Georgia share compelling true crimes and hometown stories from friends and listeners. Since MFM launched in January of 2016, Karen and Georgia have shared their lifelong interest in true crime and have covered stories of infamous serial killers like the Night Stalker, mysterious cold cases, captivating cults, incredible survivor stories and important events from history like the Tulsa race massacre of 1921. My Favorite Murder is part of the Exactly Right podcast network that provides a platform for bold, creative voices to bring to life provocative, entertaining and relatable stories for audiences everywhere. The Exactly Right roster of podcasts covers a variety of topics including historic true crime, comedic interviews and news, science, pop culture and more. Podcasts on the network include Buried Bones with Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul Holes, That's Messed Up: An SVU Podcast, This Podcast Will Kill You, Bananas and more.
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Listen to 'The Bobby Bones Show' by downloading the daily full replay.