Could be tougher to get your beer of choice at thousands of bars/restaurants/stores around NYC this week as "hundreds" of union drivers at four of Manhattan Beer's five facilities went on strike early this morning, reported NY Post and several other local media outlets. Manhattan has 600+ union employees, said reports. Much of coverage heavily favored union point-of-view. Here's typically conservative NY Post: "The dispute stems from the company's heavy handed - and allegedly illegal, according to the union - effort to get workers to stop participating in their pension plan, with an eye toward replacing it with a 401(k) or other retirement option," sources told Post. MB "allegedly sidestepped" union and "directly dealt" with union workers, "which led to the filing of an unfair labor practice complaint." "Manhattan Beer should not be violating the law, committing unfair labor practices and trying to freeze our pensions," Joe Gonzalez, a beer delivery worker, told Post. The union proposed a "modest" raise of $1.50 an hour to keep workers' pensions for both current and future employees, source told Post.

World keeps changing and even with spirits-centric seltzer slowdown, total spirits- and wine-based RTDs kept right-on-trucking. $$ sales up 27% yr-to-date thru Apr 5 in NielsenIQ data, reported Dan Wandel of Bump Williams Consulting this afternoon, while malt-based seltzers "continue to scuffle," said Dan. Down 5% YTD. For last 4 weeks, spirits/wine RTDs at 24.6 share of total flavored alcohol (including FMB, malt seltzer, cider, plus spirits and wine RTDs) for 4 weeks thru Apr 5. Malt-based seltzer at 24.2 share. RTDs up 4.2 share of flavored alcohol compared to same period last yr, while malt seltzers lost another 2.5 share. This is the earliest point in the year that RTDs outsold malt-based seltzers in a 4 week period. Previously only did so in "three quad weeks in summer" 2024. "This commentary is not intended to point out the struggles of Malt Seltzer," concludes Dan, "but rather to emphasize the ongoing scale and momentum that the Ready-to-Drink segment continues to experience. It feels like another 'milestone' in the 'evolution' of flavored alcohol and the continued rise of RTD."

Plenty of new speakers recently joined the program at our Beer Insights Spring Conference, coming up in just under 1 month on May 12-13 at the Four Seasons Chicago. Come hear AB Chief Sales Officer Simon Wuestenberg discuss the big brewer's portfolio and changing biz dynamics. Get exclusive insights from BeerBoard sr advisor Brandy Rand and Circana exec veep of Alc Bevs Scott Scanlon, who will dig into the latest on- and off-premise data to help make sense of recent slowdowns and a fickle consumer landscape.

NM's The 377 Brewery is looking for a buyer at $2.4 million with owners Cliff Sandoval and Fred Atencio ready to retire. Founded in 2016, Sandoval told Albuquerque Journal: "It's been our life and we've lost several family members in the process of it." Biz is reportedly profitable with gross revenue of $1.8M and $300K, tho all furniture, equipment and inventory are available to buyers. Will stay open until sold.

Two regional NorCal craft brewers, San Fran's Fort Point and Petaluma/Santa Rosa's HenHouse, are the latest to merge in order to help chart a path forward following a more challenging period over the last few yrs. Deal has been in the works for most of the last year and was just announced today after finalizing deets. This is a merger with shareholders from each side taking 50/50 ownership in the new entity, CBN understands. HenHouse founders Collin McDonnell and Shane Goepel, and Fort Point founders Justin Catalana, Dina Dobkin and Mike Schnebeck will all hold leadership roles in the merged company with Justin at the helm as CEO.

American Instants, which has marketed coffee and tea since 1961, has ventured into RTD segment with assist from Rutgers Univ's Food Innovation Center. Based in Flanders, NJ, the co has been incubating a concept that now goes by Brutine Zero Sugar Iced Tea after a pivot from an earlier infused-water entry. The new brand, intended as shorthand for "break from routine," is packed in half-liter PET bottles and offers 216 mg of vitamin C, potassium and calcium but comes in at just 5 calories thanks to sucralose sweetening lift.

Anheuser-Busch house Tri Eagle Sales (owned by Tripp Transou and Susie Busch Transou, daughter of former AB chmn August III) has a deal to sell minority stake to Redwood Holdings that's expected to close at end of this month. Our sibling newsletter Insights Express estimated the stake at over 20% in reporting the deal late last week. Tripp and Susie's son Tripp IV was just approved by A-B as EAM (Equity Agreement Manager) earlier this yr. Redwood Holdings already owns a beer distrib called Pepin in Tampa, Fla, with much of Tri-Eagle's territory contiguous, as well as in Houston (Silver Eagle) and Ohio (Heidelberg). Redwood Holdings is the family office set up by billionaire Jim Davis and it is the largest independent owner of A-B distributors. In statement the elder Tripp assured that "Tripp IV and our family will continue to lead the business and there will be no changes to our management or day-to-day operations." As Insights Express noted, Tri-Eagle had acquired part of Burkhardt on Apr 1 2023, just before Bud Light fiasco caused all hell to break loose in A-B system. Redwood deal would seem to help alleviate any remaining hangover from that prior deal.

Reversing the usual trajectory from supplements into RTDs, LifeAid Beverage has launched a FitAid-branded quartet of daily-use supplements dubbed Essentials that's breaking online but headed into targeted natural retailers in the future. The launch, coming 14 years into Santa Cruz-based co's history, carries familiar rationale for move into new format: committed brand users - in this case LifeAid team members themselves - were buying the supplements from patchwork of other brands, mainly on Amazon, as internal survey in late 2024 revealed, cofounder Aaron Hinde explained in email interview on Mon. "That insight validated the opportunity to create a trusted, FitAid-quality version of what our community was already using daily," he told us. Note that this isn't first time LifeAid has thought outside the classical-marketing box: it only launched what was intended to be its core canned brand, LifeAid, after several years of seeding market with entries like FitAid, GolferAid and PartyAid before concluding that more targeted approach had been right all along rather than broad thrust into conventional retail. FitAid cofounders Hinde and Orion Melehan have been outspoken in recent years about merits of more disciplined strategy they've adopted since then (BBI, Dec 16).