Audra Gaiziunas is the CFO and co-owner of Asheville’s DSSOLVR, the treasurer of the Brewers Association’s (BA) board of directors and the founder of Brewed for Her Ledger management consulting firm. Since opening the firm, Audra has worked with more than 300 brewery partners to organize and optimize their finances.
In the second part of our first-ever, two-part A Round With …, we dove into Audra’s vast financial knowledge for pearls of wisdom about how craft brewers can succeed in today’s challenging market. Audra also updates us on Asheville’s recovery following Hurricane Helene last fall.
Here is Part 2 of our conversation with Audra, which has been lightly edited for clarity. Catch up on Part 1 here.
You’re a co-owner of Asheville, North Carolina’s DSSOLVR. How is the area’s post-Helene recovery coming along?
Audra: It’s a very slow process, and it will take years to rebuild what we have lost. The hurricane severely damaged Asheville’s water infrastructure, leaving residents (and breweries!) without potable water for nearly two months. The North Fork Water Treatment Plant, which supplies about 80% of the city’s water, suffered extensive damage, including the destruction of major transmission lines. Many breweries here transported water in via tankers just to brew, including our team at DSSOLVR.
Significant progress has been made in clearing debris and repairing damaged roads, but we’re not out of the woods quite yet. Key routes, including sections of the Blue Ridge Parkway and both I-26 and I-40, have reopened, though most of these routes are down to one lane and are still under repair. The wildfires that have hit us from all the downed trees from six months ago have also slowed down our recovery.
The community has really rallied to help one another out, largely through grassroots efforts. The team from Good Morning America filmed their entire show at Highland Brewing at the end of March to showcase what we lost and what actions we’ve taken towards recovery. This broadcast offered our country a glimpse at our hometown heroes and highlighted individuals’ and non-profit organizations’ stories from their respective vantage points. Definitely worth a watch. My eyes filled with tears multiple times as I stood inside Highland Brewing as a part of that live studio audience.
Our economy in western North Carolina is heavily dependent upon tourism, and tourism revenue dropped by an estimated 70% in the last quarter of 2024, with lodging numbers down 74% in October compared to the previous year. As we ramp operations back up throughout the spring, we are holding our collective breath as the tourists return. Most of my brewery partners here have created financial emergency plans should the numbers not tick up like we expect them to. At DSSOLVR we revamped our cocktail bar next door and opened a kitchen. We also got more heavily into brewing alternative beverages other than beer, including non-alcoholic options and those with THC. We are expecting that the diversification of revenue streams will help cushion whatever blow may come next before us.
Obviously a once-in-a-generation storm isn’t something a business owner can predict, but what were some things built into DSSOLVR’s financial structure that helped the business through a difficult time?
Audra: The diversification of revenue streams was the main action we took, from an operations perspective. We wanted to offer a beverage for any palate, whether it be beer, wine, seltzer, NA or gluten-free sours. We wanted to offer a variety of experiences in different spaces across our state, so we opened a second taproom in Durham and a cocktail bar next to our OG brewery in Asheville. We opened a kitchen. We joined up with a food hall in Charlotte. Every space offers a different vibe, a variety of carefully thought-through experiences and events, though the service and quality of product remains consistent.
We continually stress test the question: If one arm of the business should be shut down or inoperable, how do we survive with our remaining arms? DSSOLVR co-founder Vince Tursi and I meet on a monthly basis to review the previous month’s financial results, project cash flow for the upcoming 12 months and talk about the financial implications of all the partnerships and opportunities that come before us.
We hash out the good, the bad, the ugly and take calculated risks that are supported by dependable data via spreadsheets. We make sure we have at least three months of operating expenses banked either in our operating account or via line of credit. We plan for seasonality. We revisit the debt service coverage ratio before tackling any expansion or new initiative that could require outside funding.
Vince’s openness to feedback and our collaborative way of working together has helped us get through the most difficult times of the past five years.
You’ve been in and around the finance side of craft beer for more than 15 years. As we navigate these choppy waters, what are the table stakes in shoring up a craft brewing business?
Audra:1. Brand Identity & Storytelling
Authenticity and transparency: Consumers expect more than just good liquid — they want to know who you are, why you exist, and what you stand for. Often this stems from bringing on and retaining the right people through fair wages, benefits and career pathways. What sort of social responsibility initiatives are we championing? Which community partnerships are we nurturing? I haven’t worked for Dogfish Head in 15 years, and yet, I still view them as a standard when it comes to brand identity and storytelling.
Design and packaging: Modern, distinctive, and sustainable packaging with clear messaging is now critical shelf appeal.
Digital presence: A clean, responsive mobile-friendly website, active and engaging social media and search engine optimization are baseline for today’s needs.
2. Omnichannel Distribution
Taproom + DTC + retail: Having a blend of on-premise, off-premise, and direct-to-consumer (including shipping if legal) offers brewers additional opportunities to engage with their fans while adding flexibility and convenience for consumers.
E-commerce readiness: Even if regulations vary, having the infrastructure to sell online (merch, memberships, gift cards) ensures readiness for shutdowns or enhances our present sales channels.
3. Data-Driven Operations
POS and CRM systems: Integrated platforms to track sales, customer behavior and inventory. There are some reasonably priced solutions out there that work really well.
More than ever, we need to understand what’s selling, to whom, when and why. Know your top-selling beers by volume and margin. What are the foot traffic patterns throughout the day and by day of the week? What sort of top line performance mix can we expect from wholesale versus taproom versus to-go versus events? What is the average dollar spend per guest? What is our taproom repeat visit rate?
Tech stack optimization: Related to the above, we need to ensure we have centralized inventory, production and sales data in as few data repositories as possible in order to minimize workarounds and human error. Most of us have a minimum of three: financial, POS, and inventory management. How can we get those standalone data sources to talk to each other? Data means very little if it isn’t organized in a way that allows us to act.
Financial visibility: Regularly updated financials, COGS tracking per style and packaging mix, margin monitoring, and cash flow forecasting are all critical. Elevating the financial literacy of all my partners has been a long-standing mission of mine over the past two decades because numbers always tell a story that we need to notice.
We need to align our spend with our strategy and forecast our future needs based on production plans. We have spent so many years living in the “now” when our focus needs to shift to “tomorrow.”
Production agility: Secure raw materials contracts for key inputs like hops, malt and packaging with backup vendors to keep costs stable and cash flow forecasting steady. Is production scalable? Even our smallest producers need flexibility, whether in-house or through alternating proprietorships, contract brewing/co-packing. Prepare for DTC, out-of-state sales or even international if the right opportunity arises.
Run key reports at least monthly, including a breakeven analysis by style/packaging mix and channel, a rolling 13-week cash flow forecast, labor-to-sales ratios by department and variance analyses within raw materials, work-in-process and finished goods. You can use AI to help you build your reporting as a time saver.
In those 15 years, do you remember a similar time when brewers were facing challenges from several directions?
Audra: We were last tested like this at the outset of the pandemic in 2020, as many of our businesses depended on in-person experiences, direct sales and community gatherings — all things that evaporated overnight. The immediate closure of taprooms meant an abrupt loss of 70-90% of revenue for many of our breweries that didn’t distribute widely. Events, festivals and private rentals were completely wiped out.
With taprooms closed, brewers pivoted to packaging quickly and at a great cost if they could find mobile canning services or even source cans (which were in global shortage at that time). And without pre-existing distribution agreements, many were shut out of retail shelves even if they could can their product.
After reopening, the social distancing rules reduced seating capacity and limited revenue potential, but fixed costs remained largely unchanged. High-margin draft sales disappeared, and low-margin emergency canning couldn’t replace that cash flow to maintain a healthy debt service coverage ratio.
For newer breweries, such as DSSOLVR (we opened in December 2019), the pandemic stole early growth momentum, brand recognition and first impressions that couldn’t be replaced, and it was a much more difficult uphill climb to build brand presence in 2020 and 2021. We survived by creating cash flow forecasts and constantly updating projections, but it was just that much harder when we had just opened and nobody had even had a chance to experience us in person.
While our industry did receive some financial assistance in the form of PPP [Paycheck Protection Program], EIDL [Economic Injury Disaster Loan] and RRF [Restaurant Recovery Fund] funding, we weren’t looking ahead far enough to ready ourselves to run our businesses at the “new normal” levels after those funds ran out.
COVID-19 was a brutal stress test for many breweries, but it also clarified how nimbleness, community goodwill, and diversified revenue streams were essential for future resilience. Those themes still ring true today.