Dogfish Head Shares Mid-Year Results

Dogfish sent out some mid-year results this week and the news is very good.  This from Adam Lambert, VP of Sales @ Dogfish Head:

.

First things first: Thanks for a great start to the year! Through the end of June we are slightly ahead of our anticipated goal of reaching 171,000 bbls shipped by the end of 2012; shipments are up 33% over 2011. That being said we still have a lot more beer to sell together the rest of the year. Total CSE depletions are growing at the same pace as our shipments allowing for the freshest beer being available to our retailers and consumers. Core beer depletion growth is up 21% and accounts for 84% of our total CSE business. 90 Minute and 60 Minute still lead the pack with 28 and 24 percent growth respectively. Having moved to our year round core portfolio Burton Baton is up 70% for the first six months of the year on a small base. Seasonals are growing at a record pace; with the addition of Tweason’ale our combined total seasonal CSE growth has reached 79% over 2011. The most exotic part of our portfolio, including our once a year 750 Ml offerings, accounts for 7% of our business and has grown 80% through the first six months of the year. We have depleted a record 38,276 cases of 12/750ml bottles.

Our continued strategy of strong growth in all markets with a focus on more volume growth closer to home continues to be successful. Through June 52% of our beer is sold within 150 miles of the state of Delaware. Pennsylvania continues to be our number one market followed closely by Maryland, New York, Virginia and Florida. The single biggest distributor growth in pure CSE comes from our New Jersey wholesaler Hunterdon who have grown 48% year to date. Our account base continues to grow and so do our average turns per point of distribution. Overall account base mix consists of 65% off premise and 35% on premise which is exactly where we goaled the business model for 2012. Off premise is growing at a pace of 26% and on premise at a pace of 35%

At the moment we are focusing on business planning for both 2013 and 2014 building a model that, with your continued support, will allow us to grow at an average pace of 20% per year. Looking forward over a 24 month window will allow us to methodically implement new sales initiatives and strategies. Spending more time to evaluate what is and isn’t working gives us the chance to fine tune our actions. We are expanding what and how we measure with regards to the health of our business with wholesalers, regional managers and retailers. Internally we are working on a new order system to allow for on-line, on time ordering and forecasting. We want sales business planning to match the quality of our beer so continued investment in our overall sales model is critical.

We whole heartedly still believe in strong growth over fast growth, and delivering the highest quality and most well-differentiated beers to our wholesalers, retailers and consumers. Without all of you we couldn’t do the things we do!

Cheers

Adam