Rabobank’s team of economists says there is an 80% chance of a recession in 2020. For our last episode of 2019, we sat down with our Senior Market Strategist, Christian Lawrence, to talk about the economic outlook for 2020. Then we discuss what a downturn could mean for consumer behavior, investor behavior, and, ultimately, food & beverage companies. 

Recorded: December 10, 2019

This episode features Senior Market Strategist Christian Lawrence, Global Beverage Strategist Stephen Rannekleiv, Senior Analyst Jim Watson, and Analyst Bourcard Nesin.

It’s been a big year for M&A in the beverage alcohol industry. In this episode, we review the most important deals of 2019: the big, the small, and the unexpected. From the surge of craft-beer and spirits acquisitions to blockbuster, billion-dollar deals, we tell you what happened, how it affects your business, and what it means for the future of the industry. Please note: this episode was recorded on Nov. 22nd 2019.

This episode features Rabobank’s global beverage strategist Stephen Rannekleiv, senior analyst Jim Watson, and analyst Bourcard Nesin, the millennial responsible for killing everything that was fun in the 1980s. 

Brooklyn Brewery has just launched their first non-alcoholic beer in the US, called Special Effects, after its resounding success in Europe. Non-alc beer may often be seen as an alternative to traditional beer, but our guest, Brooklyn CEO Eric Ottaway, insists that Special Effects offers incremental sales, bringing “more places, more occasions, and more people” into the beer category. In the US, non-alc beer sales are tiny but growing quickly, and despite large brewers reportedly prioritizing the category, we’ve seen very little innovation in non-alc beer. In this episode, Eric sits down with the RaboResearch team to discuss his company’s surprising push into and refreshing approach to the non-alc category and whether non-alc beer can gain a meaningful foothold with US consumers.

Hard seltzer brands like White Claw and Truly have stormed onto the scene, injecting growth, excitement, and more than a little anxiety into the struggling US beer industry. Light and bubbly, and imminently 'sessionable,' hard seltzer has become a category unto itself. Its viral popularity offers big brewers an opportunity to draw female consumers away from the wine & spirits category – something they’ve struggled to achieve for decades. But, in order to do so, they face an unfamiliar challenge: Can they capture market share from 'big seltzer?'

All around the world, the growth of out-of-home coffee consumption has attracted a wave of investment from coffee players and non-coffee players alike. Coffee companies are facing new competition from all sides. Startups like Luckin’ are using tech and delivery to take new business models from zero to V60 in no time flat. Quick-service restaurants, supermarkets, and convenience stores are using coffee to attract new consumers throughout the day – often at the expense of established players. Since there is no single-origin for the changes in the out-of-home coffee world, we pour over the new businesses, strategies, and technologies that define the future of the industry.

This international episode of the podcast features Rabobank’s global strategist Stephen Rannekleiv and senior analyst Sudip Sinha calling in from Manila, Phillipines, and senior analyst Jim Watson and analyst Bourcard Nesin calling in from New York City.

Kombrewcha, a hard kombucha company, joined the ZX Ventures portfolio in 2016. Kombucha is now a billion-dollar global industry. And while the famously tart, probiotic beverage has naturally occurring alcohol, Kombrewcha (4.4% ABV) was the first brand to take things one step further and introduce hard kombucha to the alcohol space. In this episode, Liz Tomic from ZX Ventures makes an encore performance alongside Kombrewcha CEO, Garret Bredenkamp, to explain how they work together to perfect their product, scale their business, and maintain the entrepreneurial spirit along the way.

This episode also features Liquid Assets mainstays Jim Watson and Bourcard Nesin.

ZX Ventures is AB InBev’s global growth and innovation group. They are best known as a corporate venture fund, boasting an impressive and far-reaching portfolio that includes Swish Beverages (Babe Wine), Hiball Energy, RateBeer, Master of Malt, and Tripel Karmeliet, among others. But ZX Ventures is much more than a corporate VC. Their 1,500-person team is tackling everything from e-commerce and brand experience to international craft. In this episode, Liz Tomic, Global Director of ZX Ventures’ Explore Fund, explains how ZX operates, her team’s investment strategy, and how they balance independence and accountability while driving innovation at the world’s largest beer company.

This episode also features Rabobank’s global beverage strategist Stephen Rannekleiv, senior analyst Jim Watson, and analyst Bourcard Nesin.

Jackson Family Wines has achieved a 33% drop in greenhouse gas emissions and a 60% reduction in the water required to produce a bottle of wine over the last decade. In February, the company, together with Familia Torres, announced a new working group, International Wineries for Climate Action, with a mission to decarbonize the wine industry. On this episode, Katie Jackson and Julien Gevreau from Jackson Family Wines share their bold vision for a more sustainable wine industry and the progress they’ve made in their own operations to reduce emissions and increase efficiency – all while becoming more profitable in the process.

This episode was recorded on location at JFW headquarters in Santa Rosa, California, and is hosted by Rabobank’s global beverages strategist, Stephen Rannekleiv and also features Rabobank’s Andre Baladi.

This episode replaces an episode titled ‘JFW – Preview’ which was accidentally published on July 23.

This week, two fantastic guests help us understand the drivers of M&A in craft spirits and what both founders and investors must do to create a successful long-term partnership. We highlight best practices – and potential pitfalls – in executing an acquisition.

Nick Papanicolaou, VP at Pernod Ricard’s New Brand Ventures division, offers buyer insights. He helped execute investments in Smooth Ambler Spirits, mescal brand Del Maguey and, most recently, Rabbit Hole Distilling.

Emily Pennington, content manager at Park Street Imports, represents the craft brand point of view.

Lastly, this episode also features Rabobank’s global strategist Stephen Rannekleiv and analyst Bourcard Nesin.

Back in November, Diageo sold 19 low-end brands – what they called 'non-priority' brands – to Sazerac for USD 550m. Then last month, Constellation Brands sold 30 of its own wine and spirits brands to E&J Gallo for USD 1.7bn. These transactions share a lot of similarities – both involve public companies selling low-end assets to a privately held competitor. Could this kind of shake-out of the bottom shelf become a trend – not only for alcohol, but for the entire beverage category?

Today's episode features global strategist Stephen Rannekleiv, senior analyst Maria Castroviejo, senior analyst Jim Watson, and that 'other guy,' analyst Bourcard Nesin.