Amazon dealt a distribution blow →
Journalists report that Amazon hasn’t started selling wines in multiple states and will not reveal the reason why. Journalists are speculating that it is because of the tied-house laws regarding alcohol sales, explaining that no producer of alcohol is allowed to pay a retailer of alcohol directly for selling its wares. Today, Amazon.com runs an online wine business that is essentially a third-party sales system like its other third-party sales. Amazon declined to comment.
Interbrand Best Global Brands: Jack Daniel’s named most valuable global spirit brand →
Jack Daniel’s, ranked 82 on the list, moved three places up from last year to make it the highest-ranking spirit brand for the second year in a row. Interbrand valued the brand at $5,332,000, up 3 percent from 2016. Johnnie Walker and Smirnoff made the list at 96 and 97, respectively. Johnnie Walker was valued at $4,405,000, while Smirnoff was valued at $4,288,000. The spirits brands are three of six alcohol brands to make the list.
Survey: wineries plan to raise prices, production →
Moss Adams conducted the 2017 Financial Benchmarking Survey. Senior business consultant William Vyenielo presented some results from the study, which analyzed 2,106 results from 80 wineries, designed to help winery and vineyard management compare their operations with peers. Among its finding were that 61 percent of wineries hoped to raise wine prices, which has proven difficult in practice, while 46 percent intend to increase wine volume. One-third of growers hope to raise grape prices and volumes, and the same number are looking to increase mechanization. Almost two-thirds of wineries intend to increase their sales budgets, and almost as many their marketing budgets. A quarter want to buy a vineyard. The whole study will be available to participants next month, when others can buy it for $495.
Oskar Blues, Frontier Airlines and CAN’d Aid fly water to Puerto Rico →
Nearly 3.4 million people in Puerto Rico are without power and more than 40 percent without clean water after Hurricane Maria hit as a Category 4 storm on September 20. Thursday, Frontier Airlines started loading the cargo holds of planes with 91,200 cans of safe drinking water canned by Oskar Blues Brewery and provided by CAN’d Aid Foundation to fly to Puerto Rico. Frontier expects to continue delivering water via flights that depart from Denver International Airport and connect to San Juan, Puerto Rico.