Boston Beer Co. reports for its full fiscal year, net profit of $108.5 million, or $9.89 a share, on $1.965 million, a 2.5% increase from the 2025 fiscal year. But its sales fell 2.4% to $1.965 billion as depletions fell 4% and shipments fell 4.7%.

That was better that Boston Beer's fourth quarter performance that saw depletions falling 6%, shipments falling 7.55 resulting in a $22.5 million as sales fell4.1%$ from a year earlier.

Jim Koch, founder/CEO, and CFO Diego Reynoso portrayed this as good news. “We were pleased to deliver on our financial commitments in 2025 while maintaining market share in a challenging operating environment,” said Chairman, Founder and CEO Jim Koch.

“Looking ahead," Koch said, we are highly focused on operational excellence, including investing in our portfolio of iconic brands, developing a strong innovation pipeline and continuing to execute on our multi-year productivity initiatives. We believe this disciplined focus positions us to improve performance over time and create long-term value for shareholders.”

“2025 was a year of continued progress for Boston Beer, highlighted by meaningful gross margin improvement and strong cash generation, while significantly increasing advertising support behind our brands,” said CFO Diego Reynoso. “In 2026, we expect continued progress on our multi-year supply chain initiatives which will be reinvested to support our brands.”

The company attributes the depletion and shipment declines to declines in Twisted Tea, Truly Hard Seltzer and Samuel Adams brands that were only partially offset by growth in the Company’s Sun Cruiser, Angry Orchard and Dogfish Head brands.

The Company said it believes distributor inventories as of Dec. 27, 2025 were at appropriate levels and averaged approximately four weeks on hand which is within the Company’s target distributor inventory levels.

Shipment volume for the fill year was about 7.1 million barrels, a 4.7% decrease from the prior year, primarily due to decreases in Twisted Tea, Truly Hard Seltzer and Samuel Adams brands that were only partially offset by growth in the Company’s Sun Cruiser, Angry Orchard and Dogfish Head brands.

A Look Ahead

Looking to the future, the company noted its business is seasonal, with the first quarter and fourth quarter being lower volume quarters and the fourth quarter typically the lowest absolute gross margin rate of the year.

• The Company expects first quarter and first half shipments to decline toward the lower end of its full year volume guidance with better shipment performance later in the year.  This is due to higher shipment comparisons in the first quarter and first half of the year as the Company shipped ahead of depletions in 2025 to support innovation and build wholesaler inventories.
• During full year 2026, the Company estimates shortfall fees and non-cash expense of third-party production pre-payments in total will negatively impact gross margins by 40 to 60 basis points.
• The Company expects year over year gross margin rate improvement to be the most meaningful in the fourth quarter as shortfall fees are expected to be lower in 2026 versus 2025 and the Company typically expenses the majority of its shortfall fees in the fourth quarter. 
• The advertising, selling and promotional expense projection does not include any changes in freight costs for the shipment of products to the Company’s distributors. Incremental advertising investment is expected to be weighted to the second and third quarters to support the key summer selling season.