USA: Boston Beer reports increase in Q4 and full-year net revenue and shipments

The Boston Beer Company, Inc. reported fourth quarter 2020 net revenue of $460.9 million, an increase of $159.6 million or 53.0% from the fourth quarter of 2019, mainly due to an increase in shipments of 54.0%.

Net income for the fourth quarter was $32.8 million, or $2.64 per diluted share, an increase of $19.1 million or $1.52 per diluted share, or 135.7%, from the fourth quarter of 2019. This increase was primarily due to increased net revenue, partially offset by lower gross margins and increases in operating expenses.

Earnings per diluted share for the 52-week period ended December 26, 2020 were $15.53, an increase of $6.37, or 69.6%, from the comparable 52-week period in 2019. Net revenue for the 52-week period ended December 26, 2020 was $1.74 billion, an increase of $486.6 million, or 38.9%, from the comparable 52-week period in 2019.

In the fourth quarter and the 52-week period ended December 26, 2020, the company recorded a tax benefit of $0.08 per diluted share and $0.85 per diluted share, respectively, resulting from the Accounting Standard "Employee Share-Based Payment Accounting" ("ASU 2016-09").

Jim Koch, Chairman and Founder of the Company, commented, "As the COVID-19 pandemic slowly winds down, our primary focus continues to be on operating our breweries and our business safely and working hard to meet customer demand. I am very proud of the passion, creativity and commitment to community that our company has demonstrated during this pandemic. We are thankful to our outstanding coworkers for their focus and diligence and our distributors, retailers and drinkers, all of whom helped the Company to achieve double digit volume growth for the eleventh consecutive quarter. We achieved depletions growth of 26% in the fourth quarter and 37% for the full year. We remain positive about the future growth of our diversified brand portfolio and we believe that our depletions growth is attributable to our key innovations, the quality of our products and our strong brands. We see significant distribution and volume growth opportunities in 2021 for our Truly, Twisted Tea and Dogfish Head brands, which remain our top priorities for 2021. Early in 2021, we launched Truly Iced Tea Hard Seltzer which combines refreshing hard seltzer with real brewed tea and fruit flavor. The launch has been well received by distributors, retailers and drinkers, but it is too early to tell if it will be successful. We are working hard to further develop our brand support and messaging for our Samuel Adams and Angry Orchard brands to position them for long-term sustainable growth, in the face of the difficult on-premise environment. We are excited about the response to the introduction in early 2021 of several new beers, Samuel Adams Wicked Hazy, Samuel Adams Wicked Easy and Samuel Adams Just the Haze, our first non-alcoholic beer, as well as the positive reaction to our Samuel Adams 'Your Cousin from Boston' advertising campaign. We are confident in our ability to innovate and build strong brands that complement our current portfolio and help support our mission of long-term profitable growth."

18 February, 2021