New Planet Beer, a Boulder, Colo.-based producer of gluten-free craft beer, is starting to make a habit of operating with limited resources.
A company of just two official employees, New Planet doesn’t own its own brewery, yet it still sells beer in 46 states and Western Canada.
But execution and focus in each state has proven to be a daunting task. That’s why the company has agreed to a joint venture with United States Beverage, a Conn.-based importer that specializes in sales and marketing for a number of international beer brands, including Murphy’s Stout and Estrella Damm.
Under the terms of the new agreement, US Beverage will become the exclusive national sales and marketing representative for the New Planet brand, acting as the master distributor and handling U.S. sales via a network of 28 representatives.
While exact terms of the deal were not disclosed, Peter Archer, the New Planet brand manager for US Beverage, confirmed that it has not made a capital investment in New Planet.
New Planet will continue to focus on production management via its alternating proprietorship agreement with Fort Collins Brewery.
“This partnership gives New Planet the opportunity to expand to where it wants to be with a company that already has the sales infrastructure in place,” said Archer. “New Planet is substantially more represented now than it was last year.”
Archer, who was previously New Planet’s marketing manager and came to US Beverage as part of the deal, said a major focus is still on driving off-premise chain business.
“Our chain business is our bread and butter,” he said. “The relationships that US Beverage has in the field will allow us to have better relationships with our chain accounts and other natural channel retailers.”
New Planet does not publicly disclose its sales figures but Archer said there are currently no “capacity limitations” in Fort Collins and he expects to grow to “25,000 barrels and beyond.”