E-Malt.com News article: USA: Pyramid Breweries selects Industry Leading Beer, Wine, and Spirits Practice

Information Resources, Inc. (IRI), the leading global provider of enterprise market information solutions for the CPG, Retail and Healthcare industries, announced on July 21 that Pyramid Breweries, a Seattle, Wash.-based leading brewer of specialty, full-flavored beers and sodas, is the latest beverage alcohol manufacturer to select IRI as its preferred provider of marketplace information, business insights and access solutions.

Pyramid joins the ranks of some of the world's leading beverage alcohol manufacturers who are benefiting from the IRI Beer, Wine, and Spirits practice. This latest win signals the industry's continued adoption of the adult beverage expertise and the combination of comprehensive market content, advanced analytics, enterprise decision support and consulting services available exclusively from IRI, which uniquely enable clients to make better business decisions in a complex marketplace.

"We switched our business from another marketplace information provider to IRI because we needed to be with the industry's beer category content leader," said Gary McGrath, Vice President of Sales for Pyramid Breweries. "IRI's high-quality, census-based store-level market information delivers the comprehensive insight that allows our organization to work closely with our retail partners to better market and sell our award-winning beverages."

To drive its marketing and sales efforts, Pyramid Breweries will tap into the IRI InfoBeerUSA(TM) offering, a Web-based beer category insights service that covers the grocery, drug, mass, liquor, and convenience channels. Pyramid will also utilize census-based, retailer defined InfoScan(R) market tracking information from IRI to gain access to store-level information to more effectively manage retail execution at the neighborhood and store levels and ultimately win at the shelf.

"High end/craft beers continue to be a solid growth area for the overall beer category and Pyramid Breweries' line of distinctive ales, beers, lagers and old-fashioned sodas regularly outperform both the beer category and micro/craft segment," said Bump Williams, Executive Vice President and General Manager, Global Consulting, Beverage Alcohol Practice, IRI. "IRI's chain-specific and store-level data will give Pyramid the best data coverage in the industry, enabling them to make even better informed business decisions about their consumers, retailers, and overall market to drive continued success."

Founded in 1984, Pyramid Breweries Inc. is a leading brewer of specialty, full-flavored beers and sodas produced under the Pyramid, MacTarnahan's and Thomas Kemper brands. The independent company operates five western breweries with adjoining Ale House restaurants in Seattle, Portland, Berkeley, Walnut Creek and Sacramento. Pyramid's flagship brand--Pyramid Hefeweizen--was judged the best at the 2004 Great American Beer Festival, garnering the Gold Medal in the American-Style Hefeweizen category. More information about Pyramid Breweries is available at www.pyramidbrew.com.

Information Resources, Inc. (IRI) is the leading global provider of enterprise market information solutions for the CPG, Retail and Healthcare industries. IRI is the first company to leverage the power of real-time market information, advanced analytic insights, and enterprise performance management technology to improve the profitability and operational effectiveness of the world's leading CPG, retail and healthcare companies. The Company uniquely provides a total view of the market, enabling maximum business performance throughout the enterprise. IRI's solutions make the consumer-driven, real-time enterprise possible. More information is available at www.infores.com.


23 July, 2005