Public health officials are still cautious as vaccinations continue to expand, but beer distributors are betting on a busy year of public gatherings based on their growing schedules.
Regional beer distributors like Del Papa Distributing and Giglio Distributing are ramping up for the apparent comeback of festival season in Southeast Texas and across their markets after adapting to a year of virtual events and canceled celebrations.
But, although brand representatives seem primed to greet festivalgoers as soon as April, most distributors were worried they were in for another grim year just a few weeks ago.
Jeff Wheeler, director of marketing with Del Papa, said his team was starting to wonder if they were going to have to go back to the drawing board again this year after multiple Mardi Gras celebrations and the South Texas State Fair were canceled or postponed at the beginning of the year.
“We were starting to think, ‘Well, here we go again,’” he said. “I think we adapted well last year and we still had plenty of chances to try new things with virtual events, but it’s hard to beat actually getting the product in someone’s hand.”
Del Papa sponsored or partnered with organizations across the region for 47 events in 2019, providing drinks for thirsty festivalgoers and introducing the newest products coming to their markets.
Following the news of gradually decreasing new cases and reduced restrictions in Texas, Wheeler said organizers started signing on in droves, growing this year’s list to 43 events.
Big draws like the South Texas State Fair have even been rescheduled, moving to May 20-30.
Giglio is also gearing up for the long-awaited marketing season, which could begin as soon as April with the coming Neches River Festival in Beaumont and the Port Neches RiverFest.
Billy Beaver, director of brand development with Giglio, said it appeared organizers had already been preplanning while waiting for a sign to proceed, which seemed to come when Gov. Greg Abbott rolled back certain restrictions at the beginning of March.
“The calls started pouring in, and we are getting new ones every day,” Beaver said. “We are still optimistic based on the current COVID cases and the fact that many of our events are outside.”
So far, Giglio is planning on being at several local events this year, including the RiverFest, the Mauriceville Crawfish Festival and the Texas Rice Festival in Winnie.
One of the local festivals on Del Papa’s list of sponsored events, Beaumont’s Neches River Festival, is just around the corner thanks to months of planning and flexibility.
Last year, the pandemic reduced the weeklong event celebrating the city’s heritage to just a small coronation of the river queen and king.
Shanna Briggs, publicity chair with the festival, said the planning committee got to work soon after, creating contingencies and backups depending on what the festival faced next year, but the typical in-person festival didn’t seem possible until the beginning of March.
“We decided to follow the lead of the city (of Beaumont) whenever they made the decision to start opening some of the downtown facilities to people,” Briggs said.
Just a month before, organizers canceled a scheduled 5K run that was supposed to be in conjunction with Mardi Gras Southeast Texas and raise funds for the River Festival.
Now, Briggs said vendor and event participation has seemingly taken off as the festival’s April 7 launch approaches, and organizers are ready to host the annual river day for high school kids, along with a street party and coronation ball.
While distributors missed key opportunities like festivals to boost the visibility of new products in 2020, brewers still saw plenty of sales during the pandemic.
Gross revenues in the national spirits market grew by 7.7% in 2020, according to the Distilled Spirits Council, setting the largest increase on record.
Beer saw about 44% of those increased sales, despite dealing with issues including grain delays and aluminum can shortages because of the spike in demand for canned drinks.
Some of those hurdles are still impacting certain brands and varieties. For example, Wheeler said it would be rare to see an 18-pack of cans and certain package styles for imported beers while the aluminum issue is still being addressed by manufacturers.
Neither distributor expects any of the problems created by the pandemic to prevent local eventgoers from enjoying their favorite cold ones —at least in the near future.
“I would say Southeast Texas, for the most part, has been pretty steady with the demand at bars and restaurants, which are the same product types we would be using at festivals,” Beaver said. “The issues might come when the rest of the country that hasn’t been as open comes back online and starts ordering stuff they haven’t been in the last year.”
jacob.dick@beaumontenterprise.com
twitter.com/jd_journalism
April 01, 2021 at 10:44PM
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Beer distributors say public events are roaring back - Beaumont Enterprise
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