Boston Beer Company Continues Revenue Slide, Down 14% Year Over Year

At their 2017 Q1 earnings call today on April 26, Boston Beer Company announced that it once again had a very disconcerting quarter, as they were down 14% in overall revenue, and a staggering 14% in depletions. Depletions are essentially the amount that one sells to retailers and distributors. High depletions means more beer selling off the shelves. CEO Martin Roper attributes most of this decrease to, "the underperformance of our 2017 spring seasonals, Samuel Adams Hopscape and Samuel Adams Fresh as Helles, compared to Samuel Adams Cold Snap last year. The weakness in our two new spring seasonals seems to have resulted from a combination of drinker confusion at retail, acceptability of these seasonal beer styles and the timing of our seasonal transitions compared to last year."

This is yet another rough quarter that long time Founder and Chairman Jim Koch and Boston Beer Company have had. And while Koch is attempting to explain what the issues with his company are, there haven't been many changes that have significantly helped this troubled company.

We recently explored in depth the myriad issues plaguing Boston Beer Company, their inability or unwillingness to change, and the extreme difficulty of navigating the current craft beer market as a larger craft brewery.