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This Kirkland Signature Hefeweizen is for you!Already the leading seller of wine in the U.S., Costco (NASDAQ: COST) has applied to sell its own brand of beer. The beer, to be brewed by California crafter Gordon Biersch Brewing Company, will come in pale ale, hefeweizen, amber ale, and lager varieties.
With Trader Joe's-branded varieties of beer and wine already a staple at the parties I attend here in Portland, I wonder if this move will be a major market force in the premium beer market. (Gordon Biersch produces beer for Trader Joe's, already.) All of the big brewers have recently been making forays into premium brews as a reaction to the growing influence of smaller breweries like Sam Adams and Sierra Nevada, as well as the groundswell of regional microbreweries. Craft beer made up 3.6% of the U.S. market in 2006; but had grown by 31.5% over the 2003-2006 period, as opposed to low-single-digit growth in the beer market as a whole.
It is increasingly obvious to a substantial segment of the population that neither Bud nor Miller tastes great. The production of high volume, high quality Costco-branded beer will only magnify that realization and could be a serious challenge to the market dominance the large breweries have enjoyed for several decades. As for Costco? The company's obvious success in wine means it should find an easy time convincing its customers to become regular drinkers of Kirkland Ale and perhaps provide a good avenue for bottom line earnings growth.
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Reader Comments (Page 2 of 2)
2-11-2008 @ 9:41PM
Paul Redman said...
To the guy that builds Costco's. You should go to www.Q-TekBomber.com. Costco could really use this thing to build pallets of product.
2-12-2008 @ 12:29PM
Duuude said...
Hey, before everyone starts worrying, remember.... its got to be GOOD beer.
2-12-2008 @ 7:08PM
John said...
This is just another attempt by the big corporate giants to eliminate the middle tier of the 3 tier distributing system. The majority of this tier are family owned, passed down through generation store delivery companies which depend on supplying the products we all love to stores like Wal-Mart, Sam's and Costco. Don't let the giants inherient the world and put the mom and pops out of business.
2-12-2008 @ 10:13PM
Mike Neilson said...
If the beer is anthing like the Kirkland Vodka-Go for it!! I just recently made the switch from Gray Goose to the Kirkland brand........
2-13-2008 @ 8:43AM
Steve said...
John's right. Now that the courts ruled against Costco in the NorthWest to eliminate the middleman, they will look for alternate ways to do the same. Biersch don't give in !!!
2-13-2008 @ 11:42AM
Markblues said...
I was out in Denver last year and I stopped at Breckenridge for a few beers and it wan't that bad. However, they didn't come close to anything Bells Brewery out of Kalamazoo, MI does. In my opinion they are simply the best micro-brewer out there. Their Two-Hearted Pale is just awesome.
However, Knight, since you brought up Colorado breweries I would have to argue that Odell's out of Ft. Collins is far far superior to anything New Belgium puts out.
2-18-2008 @ 7:19PM
rawcourage said...
My personal beer is brewed right here at home. Commercial people do not use the ingredients and amount used by me; it is too expensive for them. But, If I buy a beer it is a Czech beer. Visit the breweries of Czecklosvakia and Restaurants with microbreweries that are hundreds of years old. American Budweizer stole their name from the Czechs. The real Budweizer Brewery is not here. Cheers!
3-05-2008 @ 9:41AM
Markblues said...
Raw- you need to get your facts straight. AB just won in all European courts for the right to Budweiser because they started brewing Bud here around the 1870's or so and it wasn't until about 20 years or so later that Budvar in Czech started brewing theirs. They are the ones that started to capitalize on the Bud name when it became popular here...nice try though.
I do agree with you that Budvar is a great beer though and it's one that I buy often.