When Golden Road Brewing co-founders Meg Gill and Tony Yanow wrote their first business plan, initial forecasts called for 60,000 barrels of beer by year five. Now, midway through its fourth full year, the brewery is on pace to sell 45,000 barrels, and it will likely exceed the 60,000 barrel threshold in 2016, Gill told Brewbound. So, with the expiration date on its first five-year plan just 18 months away, we checked in on the company’s plans the next phase of growth.
Deschutes Brewery today announced it has signed new distribution agreements with Horizon Beverage Company and Markstein Sales Company, for coverage throughout Alameda and Contra Costa counties in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Talk about making an entrance. MillerCoors’ newly appointed interim CEO Gavin Hattersley — who currently serves as both the CFO of Molson Coors and replaced outgoing MillerCoors CEO Tom Long on Wednesday — had been in charge for just 24 hours when he told two of the company’s top executives to hit the bricks.
Even if you offered Eric Wallace $1 billion, he says, he wouldn’t sell Left Hand Brewing Company — the Longmont, Colo. craft brewery he co-founded in 1993 — to a private equity firm. Instead, he just entrusted more than half of it to his employees. That makes his semi-utopian business philosophy a bit more believable.
Colorado’s Left Hand Brewing will join a growing list of craft brewers opting to sell at least a portion of their companies back to employees. The Longmont-based craft brewery today announced it has finalized the repurchase of common shares from current stockholders and established an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP).
MillerCoors is rolling out a new set of print and billboard ads aimed at educating consumers about its company vision and values. The “We Stand for Beer” campaign is set to launch on July 6 in eight U.S. markets where the company operates brewing facilities, including Golden, Colo., Irwindale, Calif., and Fort Worth, Tex., among others.
Surprise, Surprise – sales of craft beer and cider continue to outpace other segments, up more than 20 percent and 34 percent, respectively, through June 14 in IRI Worldwide’s multi-outlet and convenience store universe (which includes grocery, drug, Wal-Mart, club, dollar, mass-merchandiser and military stores). The craft segment currently comprises more than 8 percent of total beer dollar sales, according to the research firm.
After completing an “extensive” internal and external search, Duvel Moortgat USA yesterday announced Bobby Dykstra as its new vice president of the sales. Dykstra, a 12-year beer industry veteran, takes over for Steve Mills, who left to become CEO of Uinta Brewing earlier this month.
Inspiring art and quality craft beer have always paired well for Eugene-based craft brewery, Ninkasi Brewing Company. From its very beginning, Ninkasi dedicated itself to art, creating an in-house design team to direct and produce all branding. This year, Ninkasi takes that commitment to the next level with an Artist In Residence (AIR) program. The brewery will open its doors to selected artists in a variety of skillsets. Artists will be contracted annually to work hand-in-hand with Ninkasi’s marketing and design teams.
In the last 16 months, Anheuser-Busch InBev has acquired three craft breweries in three key beer states. The question on nearly every craft brewer’s mind is “what’s the strategy?” Andy Goeler, A-B InBev’s CEO of Craft, is the man tasked with shepherding all of these newly acquired brands. Over the last four months, Brewbound has asked Goeler, on multiple occasions, to elaborate on the company’s dealings in craft.
At this point, craft brewers are probably sick of reading the words “trademark dispute” in a headline. Thankfully, we’ve got an opportunity to discuss the topic – and the increasing importance of performing proper trademark due-diligence before launching new products — in a far less contentious way
Lagunitas is planning another brewery, this time in Southern California. Brewery founder Tony Magee took to Twitter late last night to make the big reveal, detailing plans for the company’s third brewing facility, which will be located in Azusa, Calif., just 25 miles east of downtown Los Angeles.
After eight months of self-distributing its products, a change in Kentucky law has forced a Cincinnati, OH-based beer company to find a local wholesaler. While Rhinegeist Brewery-owned Riverghost Distributing won’t be getting out of the wholesaling business altogether, it has sold the distribution rights to its parent company’s fast-growing beer brand to rival Heidelberg Distributing.
St Killian Importing Co., the leading importer of world-class beers from around the globe, has acquired the Exclusive Importation Rights to the entire portfolio of Bitburger Braugruppe beers from Belukus Marketing, Inc. St Killian will be the sole importer of Germany’s best-selling beers, including Bitburger Pilsener, Kostritzer Swartzbier, Konig Pilsener and Benediktiner Weissbeer – all four have enjoyed increased popularity as the desire for authentic German-style beers continues to grow in the United States.
