Still working on hard seltzer (MNST)
Management did not have an announcement on hard seltzer like many were expecting. Monster Energy wants to be differentiated, which isn’t the easiest thing with so many offerings. However, it’s the distribution side that is more complicated than being differentiated. “We are looking. We’ve said we are looking, and we are continuing to look at and evaluate the seltzer market, both the alcoholic and the non-alcoholic seltzer market, energy market. We are involved in developing products, and how we’re going to launch when we’re going to launch, things are changing. The markets are changing, as you said. We are reluctant to launch and become one of many just following the same niche of products. And so we are looking at where we see the opportunity or where do we see being able to have and make an impact and have a point of difference…. We don’t want to prematurely talk about it until we are ready from a competitive point of view as well.” Management didn’t rule it out as much as push the announcement out to February. “… on the seltzer area, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic, we probably will have some more to give you – some more news in February.”
As for cannabis beverages, management said, “There’s a lot of federal issues with cannabis. And we don’t want to run into them and end up with a lot of regulatory issues. And when the time is right, we will be able to formulate products and participate in that category.”
A bigger hazy push (SAM)
Hazy IPAs have been driving the IPA category for several years, first on the East coast before spreading nationally. Adding hazy IPAs to their offering has boosted both New Belgium and Sierra Nevada (third and fourth-largest craft brewers). New Belgium’s Voodo Ranger and Sierra Nevada’s Hazy Little Thing sub-brands boosted both brewers’ share in 2020, as seen in the following chart.
Samuel Adams is renaming its Sam ’76 as Wicked Easy. Samuel Adams is years behind on the hazy IPA, but it should still capture its share of the market as consumers' taste profiles have changed. Samuel Adams has had New England IPAs (as hazy IPAs are also known by) previously, as the Rebel IPA launched in 2014, but it did not catch on.
Samuel Adams is launching Wicked Hazy, and Wicked Easy with a regional Super Bowl ad buy and on Yahoo and Verizon. Anheuser Busch InBev maintains exclusivity over national ad space for beer ads as the Super Bowl’s official beer sponsor, but it does not prevent regional ad buys. Last year Boston Beer made regional ad buys for Truly Lemonade Hard Seltzer. Molson Coors made regional ad buys for Saint Archer Gold, which is now defunct. Boston Beer is investing 40% more on the Samuel Adams brand than it did in 2020.
The smart grocery cart race (KR)
Since the fall, Kroger has been testing KroGO, a smart grocery cart in a Cincinnati store. Kroger has partnered with Caper, a startup firm. The cart can weigh items, provide shopping suggestions, and scan and pay without using the traditional checkout lane. Amazon Fresh grocery stores utilize a proprietary smart cart called Amazon Dash. Caper and Amazon are hardly the only companies developing smart carts or faster grocery checkouts. The growth in online grocery during the pandemic has accelerated the sector’s technology investments. It’s not clear what the first-mover advantage will be when training the consumer to change their shopping behavior. Still, with Amazon aggressively pursuing grocery management investments, teams take big risks by not doing anything. (Amazon Fresh announced it is opening two stores in Seattle, which will bring its nationwide total to ten.)
Left unanswered is if the cart can stop rolling into parked cars.
