Sands Through the Hourglass — Will AB-InBev Buy Craft Brew Alliance?
A series of deals that began in 2014 came to full fruition last week, as Craft Brew Alliance (CBA) announced it would purchase a full stake in three breweries. North Carolina’s Appalachian Mountain Brewery (2014) and Massachusetts’ Cisco Brewers (2015) had previously created “strategic partnerships” with CBA to gain better access to expertise and processes related to brewing, purchasing, distribution, and sales. Florida’s Wynwood Brewing sold a 24.5% stake to CBA in 2016.
Dating back to at least 2014, CBA prided itself on a clever tagline that continues to resonate as the number of U.S. breweries has almost doubled from the 3,785 that existed at that point in time: “The Soul of a Craft Brewer. The body of a Big Brewer.” This deliberate credo highlights a core purpose of the company’s broader strategy of embracing localized successes and helping them grow. (Sightlines)
Robots and Drones Will Change Retail Forever
What if you could store and deliver goods as easily as data? Amazon, Walmart and others are using AI and robotics to transform everything from appliance shopping to grocery delivery. Welcome to the physical cloud. (Wall Street Journal)
Personal footnote: The Amazon warehouse described here is in a former General Motors assembly plant that was a neighbor of ours when we were stationed at Fort Holabird, then the home of the U.S. Army Intelligence School. Fort Holabird, established in 1918, was closed in 1973 and the Intelligence School was moved to Fort Huachuca, Ariz., three months after an Army captain wrote an article in Washingtonian magazine describing Army surveillance of civilians. Here’s a brief history of Fort Holabird (Dundalk Eagle). And here‘s a reasonably accurate description of the atmosphere of the post from my time there. I actually remember Sgt. Perez.