Fireside chat rescheduled (ANDA)
Our fireside chat with the management team of Stryve Foods will be on Wednesday at 2 PM ET. Stryve Foods produces and sells biltong, an air-dried meat snack. Stryve’s product checks several boxes in current growth categories in food, including snacking, better-for-you, no sugar, no carbs, and Keto/Paleo diets. We will have Joe Oblas, co-founder and co-CEO, Jaxie Alt co-CEO and CMO, and Alex Hawkins, COO joining us for a fireside chat. We will discuss its background, biltong, how they see their product fitting within current food trends, and more. Stryve Foods is unique among new food product trends in that it has the only USDA-approved large-scale facility to manufacture its product. So Stryve Foods encompasses the trend.
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CLICK HERE at the time of the event for the webcast and materials. |
Boston Beer Q2 preview (SAM)
Boston Beer (SAM) reports Q2 results on Thursday. Revenues are expected to increase 44% YOY. Analysts expect the on-premise re-opening to make up for the shortfall with off-premise POS trends well below the projected revenue growth. Hard seltzer penetration is only 3% YTD, but Q2 drives that. The consensus EPS estimate has fallen from just above $7 to the high $6 range, which is considered stale because old estimates were not revised down from $7. After beating the EPS estimate last Q, the shares performed poorly by 70% ($4.57 excluding a tax benefit vs. $2.69). The opposite may be true for this earnings report with the concern of an earnings miss and guidance revision being priced into the shares in recent weeks. Boston Beer is still priced like a growth stock, but the hard seltzer category is experiencing a rapid deceleration in sales growth. It is too early to be buying a share gainer in a category that may no longer be growing. The category’s reliance on innovation for growth is worrisome when the RTD category has the innovation momentum. A return to an increase in household penetration or repeat purchases are pre-requisites for hard seltzer.
Alcohol consumption grew during the pandemic (STZ)
IWSR, a data, and intelligence company focused on the global beverage alcohol, reported that alcohol consumption in the U.S. was up 2% in 2020, the largest gain since 2002. IWSR research shows that YTD consumption is up compared to 2019. IWSR expects for 2021 volume to be up 3.8% and value to be up 5.5%. IWSR said that a key driver of the growth was flavor. “Flavored subcategories – from beer to vodka to U.S. whiskey – are significantly outperforming traditional non-flavored sub-categories. The flavor is also the top consumer driver of the fast-growing ready-to-drink category, and that’s likely creating a halo effect on total alcohol as well.” Spirits had the fastest volume growth of the alcohol categories at +7.7%. Agave-based spirits grew 15.9% in 2020 and are now the third-largest spirits category. Wine grew 0.7% by volume and 1.5% by value in 2020. Imported wines grew 2.5%, outpacing domestic wine growth of 0.3%. RTDs grew 62.3% by volume in 2020, led by hard seltzer growth of 130%, and represented 56.7% of the RTD category. Beer volumes declined 2.8% in 2020, with imports up 3.1% and domestic beers down 4.4%. Alcohol consumption growing in 2020 probably surprises no one, but the acceleration in 2021 does not seem to be priced in.
