We don’t normally report on boring stuff like the stock market; however, this is really about beer and the continuing rise of the craft beer market as a whole.
As many people know, Widmer Brothers Brewing Co. and Redhook officially merged to form Craft Brewers Alliance, Inc. in July 2008. Shares in Craft Brewers Alliance Inc. soared last week when the company released its second-quarter earnings and shared other information with investors.
The company reported second-quarter net income of $1.7 million (earnings of 10 cents per share) and revenues that increased to $35.1 million. In last Friday’s trading session, shares in Craft Brewers shot up more than 19 percent, rising more than 51 cents to close at around $3.19.
Wow!
Recently, the company aquired the Kona beer brand. According to company officials, the Kona brand is growing in the U.S.
In their quartly report, company officials said, “The (Kona) brand continues to see double-digit growth in this market, suggesting that consumers have formed a strong bond with the brand, purchasing it repeatedly.”
The company sites other reasons for optimism. “The Redhook brand has lagged the trend in the growth of the craft segment for the last several years, due in part to the life cycle of the brand family’s former flagship, ESB, which had matured in key markets even while the overall segment continued to grow. To offset this factor, the Company engaged in systematic initiatives, including rebranding Redhook IPA into Long Hammer IPA and relaunching this brand with new packaging and a concentrated focus as the new Redhook flagship in January 2007. Leveraging off of the growth of the IPA category, this rebranding effort resulted in an increase in shipments of Long Hammer IPA from 2007 to 2008 by approximately 15%.”
If you want to read the quarterly report, you can read the whole thing here. I just did. There’s some interesting stuff. There’s also a lot of really boring stuff, but at least it’s about beer.
