“Vermont is a very special place for beer, and many of our leadership’s formative craft beer experiences happened there,” Craft Collective co-founder and CEO Adam Oliveri said in a press release. “We’ve wanted to distribute in Vermont since we launched Craft Collective in 2015, and are happy to now be partnering with a promising local brand to build the Vermont business around.”
Speaking to Brewbound, Oliveri explained the impetus behind the expansion is a partnership with Vermont Beer Makers, who will sell the rights to their brands to Craft Collective after about a decade of self-distribution.
“It’s that catalyst – being able to build with a strong partner was the decision-making factor for us,” he said. “We wanted to be in Vermont for five years, but just never had that good opportunity to make the entry. And so ‘why Vermont?’ Yeah, the market’s an awesome market to be in, but the real why is that Vermont Beer Makers represents an opportunity to build a strong business.”
Craft Collective will begin service in the Green Mountain State on March 7 with Vermont Beer Makers, which was renamed from Trout River Brewing Co. in 2020, according to a report in the Burlington Free Press. Trout River Brewing was launched in 1996 and remains one of the Green Mountain State’s oldest craft breweries.
“We look forward to continuing to grow our brand throughout New England and beyond through our partnership with Craft Collective,” Vermont Beer Makers president Norm Connell said in the release. “We have relied on Craft since our beginning and will continue to do so as we grow and begin construction of our new state-of-the-art brewery in Brattleboro, Vermont.”
Vermont Beer Makers’ portfolio includes flagships Pebble double IPA, Illuminate Belgian ale, Feather session pilsner and Scarlet red ale, as well as specialty limited releases and seasonals. Craft Collective also distributes Vermont Beer Makers in Massachusetts, Maine and Rhode Island. In 2020, Vermont Beer Makers produced 360 barrels of beer, according to the Brewers Association.
Stoughton, Massachusetts-headquartered Craft Collective will operate from a 15,000 sq. ft. warehouse in a former cheese plant in Hindsburg, Vermont, about 14 miles south of Burlington.
“It was set up as a dairy processing facility, so it’s great really,” Oliveri told Brewbound. “It’s got really high ceilings and the cold rooms are already there.”
Under self-distribution, Vermont Beer Makers was calling on 150 retail accounts, so Craft Collective will continue serving those retailers. The distributor will start with two sales reps and a warehouse employee, Oliveri said.
Craft Collective plans to add additional brands to its Vermont portfolio in May, and Oliveri estimated there could be as many as eight brands in the warehouse by fall. The wholesaler is open to carrying CBD products, hard kombucha and non-alcoholic offerings, including NA wine.
“We’re gonna give a couple months to transition over all the customers, make sure that the routes are well-established, and that we have a firm understanding of the day-to-day flows in the market and then and then we’ll start adding,” Oliveri said.
For now, the plan is to focus on growing Vermont Beer Makers before adding more brands.
“If we can grow them 15% or 20%, that will form the base of the pyramid for us,” he said.
Craft Collective has had “active discussions” about expanding into Connecticut after the closure of Night Shift Distributing’s branch there created an opening in the market, Oliveri said. Headded that his team toured Night Shift’s facility as a prospective home. But those plans stalled.
“For the same reason why we entered Vermont, we didn’t enter Connecticut,” he said. “We feel like in the craft beer world of today, you have to have a strong local brand to build around. … We would wait for a catalyst. We’re not just going to enter the market because we want to say we cover the entirety of New England.”
In Massachusetts, Craft Collective’s home market, the wholesaler distributes nearly 80 brands of craft beer, cider and hard seltzer with regular availability, and sells dozens more with limited availability for special events. The regularly available craft brands include local breweries Honest Weight, Idle Hands, Dorchester Brewing and Aeronaut, and breweries from New England and New York such as Proclamation Ale Company, Finback, Singlecut and Bunker.