Beer prices may increase

SOUTH BEND -- Indiana beer drinkers not only face the state sales tax jump on Sunday, but might also see higher prices coming from the nation's largest brewers.\nAnheuser-Busch Inc., Miller Brewing Co. and Coors Brewing Co. have all advised their wholesale customers of pending price hikes.\nThe increase to wholesalers is expected to be about 60 cents a case, said Jeff Dee, vice president of United Beverage Co. of South Bend.\nWholesalers and retailers also are likely to add their own increases to cover higher costs of operations, said Michael Hosier, beer buyer for Belmont Beverage of Fort Wayne. The final price hike to consumers could be about $1 a case, he said.\nThe Indiana state sales tax also rises Sunday from 5 percent to 6 percent.\nSome contend the price hikes are connected to the abolition this year of a state rule that prohibited wholesalers from setting up exclusive sales territories.\nUntil this year, a regulation of the Indiana Alcohol and Tobacco Commission had allowed wholesalers to operate anywhere in the state. But the rule was allowed to expire.\nIndiana had been the only state that prohibited exclusive territories for wholesalers.\nThe lack of competition concerns Joan Allberry, the owner of Bobby Jo's Party Shoppe in Goshen.\nBefore, she could buy from four beer distributors. Now she is down to just two: Nelson Beverage Co. of Warsaw for Anheuser-Busch beers and Metro Beverages Inc. of South Bend for Miller brews.\n"Years ago, there was competition. Now we're locked into just one distributor for each brewer," she said.\nBut some wholesalers in northern Indiana contend the rule change has nothing to do with rising prices.\n"It's just the annual price hike (by brewers)," Dee said. "The cost of doing business continues to escalate for both them and for us and that's being passed on. It's just kind of a cost-of-living increase."\nRobert L. Roule, president of Metro Beverages in South Bend, agreed.\n"The beer industry is like any other industry. You have companies that do well and others that fail," Roule said.\nRoule also said he sees no signs that permitting exclusive territories will result in so-called "beer barons."\n"I have enormous competition today," he said. "Whether you have one, two or three distributors, you have competition."\nTwo wholesalers have taken their case against the rule change to the Indiana Supreme Court.\nLittle Beverage Co. of Attica and Miami Beverage of Peru claim in an appeal filed last week that allowing breweries to establish exclusive sales territories for wholesalers will lead to monopolies, driving prices higher.\nTheir request for an injunction previously was denied in Marion County Superior Court, a decision that was upheld in a 2-1 decision by the Indiana Court of Appeals.