Consumers in the US are prioritizing value-priced beers. Brewers that have struggled with sagging demand have excess manufacturing capacity available. And major players like Costco and Walmart have made investments in exclusive beer brands recently.
For decades, beer has been a fairly impenetrable category for store brands. While other departments have seen an explosion of private labels, beer has resisted this due to its plethora of cheap options with significant brand equity, said Jim Watson, senior beverage analyst at banking and financial services firm Rabobank.
But these days, consumers’ thirst for quality beer at a reasonable price isn’t getting fully quenched, especially as struggling craft brewers have pulled back on production and innovation. The category is, very interestingly, a little bit more ripe for the taking than it ever has been from a private label perspective.
Costco recently partnered with Oregon-based Deschutes Brewery, one of the country’s largest craft beer makers, to offer a helles-style lager as well as a limited-availability barrel-aged stout under the club retailer’s Kirkland brand. Eager to improve upon an earlier Kirkland beer that it discontinued in 2018, Costco has “finally hit the mark” with the new Deschutes-made brews, according to The Wall Street Journal.
A small number of convenience store chains like Sheetz, Rutter’s and Stewart’s Shops have spent years dabbling in private label beer. Recently, Stewart’s Shops, which operates around 400 convenience stores, mostly in New York State, relaunched Mountain Brew, an exclusive beer brand that garnered mixed reviews during a 10-year run on shelves that ended in 2020.
Full story Private label beer is having a moment. Should c-stores order a round? | C-Store Dive
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