Citing a challenging beer market, Sapporo-Stone Brewing has undergone a restructuring that has cut 1% of all roles, which affected 2% of total employees, a spokesperson confirmed to Brewbound.
“At Sapporo-Stone, we are continually evaluating our business to best create enduring success into the future,” CEO Zach Keeling said in a statement. “Despite positive momentum, we recognize challenges in the beer market and look to further increase alignment on critical strategic initiatives.
“We are streamlining our business to focus on markets, channels and customers where we know we have a right to win,” he continued.
The moves are “truly a restructuring and realignment toward our most critical initiatives, not arbitrary cost-cutting,” Keeling added.
“We recognize the impact these decisions have on our team and their families,” he said. “These decisions have not been made lightly. Our priority at this time is to support our team through this transition.”
In addition to trimming 1% of its jobs, Sapporo-Stone has also eliminated its e-commerce business and will no longer ship beer or merchandise.
“We will, however, continue to offer these and other exciting additions like our new Brewery Exclusives at our six Bistro & Tap Room locations,” Keeling said. “This allows us to focus our resources on key markets while still providing incredible experiences for our visiting fans.”
Brewery Exclusives is a new taproom-only initiative of beers that will rotate roughly monthly and includes “a mix of long-retired classics, cult favorites previously only available on draft and amazing innovations from our insanely talented brewers,” according to Stone’s website.
Stone began shipping beer directly to consumers (DTC) outside of California in 2021, when it launched DTC sales to Ohio. The brewery also shipped beer DTC to Washington, D.C., and Virginia, the home state of its East Coast production hub in Richmond, according to a spokesperson.
Stone’s website currently directs would-be customers to “visit one of our locations for exclusive Stone Brewing merchandise and beer today.” A version of the brewery’s online shop saved on December 20, 2024, and accessed through the online archive the Wayback Machine touted beer, apparel, drinkware, accessories, collections and gifts as shoppable categories.
In November 2024, the company shed its small exporting business, which accounted for 1% of total sales.
Year-to-date (YTD) through December 29, 2024, Sapporo-Stone recorded low single-digit declines in dollar sales (-2.6%) and volume (-3.2%) at multi-outlet grocery, mass retail and convenience stores (MULO+C) tracked by market research firm Circana.
Sapporo-Stone was the 23rd largest beer category vendor (YTD) in MULO+C channel, with $100.7 million in sales for the period. It overindexed in the grocery channel, where it was the 17th largest vendor, but grocery dollar sales (-4.4%) and volume (-4.7%) declines outpaced the company’s overall business. Sapporo-Stone did not rank among the 25 largest vendors in the convenience channel.
Revisit previous Brewbound coverage of the company’s 2025 plans for Stone and Sapporo.
Editor’s note: This story was updated at 3 p.m. ET on Thursday January 23 to include information about Stone’s prior DTC markets and the company’s new Brewery Exclusives line.