Continuing to move out of what was once a customer base lying almost entirely in the Midwest, Bell’s Brewery today announced plans to expand distribution into Southern California in early May.
The Michigan-based craft brewery has signed a wholesale agreement with Craft Beer Guild Distributing of California, an extension of L. Knife & Son’s growing national craft wholesale network.
“We have a great distribution partner in Southern California and we’re really excited to join an outstanding craft beer community in San Diego,” Laura Bell, the company’s vice president told Brewbound.
The announcement comes just one month after Bell’s launched in New York City with Union Beer Distributors, another L. Knife & Son wholesale operation.
California is the 20th state where Bell’s beers are now sold. Despite the fact that it is now pushing into New York and SoCal, Laura Bell said the company has no plans to expand into additional markets anytime soon
“Our goal is to keep growing in the territories that we are in,” she said. “If we decide to go into a new territory, which doesn’t look like will happen for quite a while, we want to make sure that we find the right partners in the right territories.”
The company is currently wrapping up an expansion to its fermentation capabilities and recently installed 12, 800-barrel tanks which will be “coming online very soon,” said Bell.
A new canning line is also being assembled and cans are expected to be released to all 20 states in late April.
Bell’s made 246,000 barrels of beer in 2013.